Just Business
by slingbees
Summary: Medea is contracted to the demon Celaeno, the living armor. After escaping a rough relationship and hiring Dante's services to retrieve the dagger that allows the two of them to communicate through their bond, Medea finds herself between Celaeno, who wants to play no part in Medea's human relationships, and Vergil, who is trying to relearn what it means to be human. OC/Canon.
1. Chapter 1

I stepped across the threshold of the back alley shop. I expected little, but was surprised to see its interior was reminiscent of a rundown bar, complete with pool table and busted-up vintage jukebox. The walls and floor appeared grungy, but it seemed like the result of the building's age, rather than negligence, even though the atmosphere gave the impression that negligence wasn't out of the question either.

Despite the fact that the door was unlocked, there was no one in the lobby area, and I didn't hear any sounds from deeper within the building. I stood silently for a few moments, debating if I should just come back later. There was no way I could find what I was looking for on my own, but with no sign of the owner…

Just as I turned my back, I heard the back door swing open.

I opened my mouth with a start, but when my eyes settled on the man who entered the room, he wasn't quite what I was expecting. He was really tall, and not just because I'm on the short side of average, but he had a nonchalant posture and an air about him that seemed to say that there was nothing he took seriously. It lined up with the personality of the room around me, but I was looking for someone who could finish a job for me.

"Are you Dante?" I asked, trying not to look disappointed.

"Who's asking?" he asked, shaking long hair out of his face. I wondered if I had disturbed him, but technically it was during his business hours.

"Um, my name is Medea," I started, putting a hand on my hip. "I was hoping I could hire you to find something for me. I get that you usually take on bigger targets, but I don't think anyone else can do the job."

"Check the lost and found already?" he scoffed, flopping back into his desk chair as if I had insulted him. "I don't know what you've heard about me, but I only take jobs that interest me."

I stood my ground, squaring my stance up as I took a step towards him again. "I know. That's why I came here in person instead of making a call. The person who referred me to you told me that you almost never take jobs over the phone, if you even answer it."

An expression like he'd been caught crossed his face for a moment, and he snorted, then sat forward, paying attention to me again. "It sounds like you've done your homework. If I were to take this job, what makes you think that I'm the only one who can find whatever it is you've lost?"

My face felt warm as I tried to come up with an answer. "I didn't lose it, it was taken from me-"

"Ah, so you should have tried the police then."

"-By demons."

"Oh."

He went quiet for a few seconds, I could tell he expected me to continue speaking, but I doubted I had caught his interest even after that. After all, if demons weren't involved somewhere, then I wouldn't be here. I could tell he knew what his service was worth, but his attitude told me he didn't really want my business.

I sighed.

"I'm looking for a dagger. It belongs to me, but it's a dangerous thing for a human to just be carrying around, so every so often I run into trouble with the demonic realm. Usually from weaker devils, but even stronger ones I can normally handle if they come in smaller numbers." My arms were folded, I tried not to appear too annoyed as I spoke, because my frustration was really only with myself. "The thing is, the other night, I got attacked by a whole mob of them and couldn't do anything about it. They took the sword with them to the demon realm, and obviously I can't get there by myself."

Dante tipped back in his chair, crossing his legs comfortably on his desk while he thought. "Yeah, I guess you can't, normally. What is this dagger, anyway? You sound like you know a thing or two about devils already."

"I know a little," I admitted. "The dagger is called Celaeno's Gale, it's… kind of a relic. Definitely demonic. It's not so powerful that it would attract the attention of anything really dangerous, but the little ones will take power where they can get it. I'm sure they have some kind of hoard somewhere, so if you want, you can keep anything you find besides the dagger, in addition to your payment."

"No thanks, stuff like that doesn't interest me," said Dante, shaking his head. "Like I said, I kill demons. I'm not a courier. Besides, if you're dealing with things like demon relics, that's more up my brother's alley anyway."

I paused. "Your brother?"

He seemed a little smug for just a second. "Bet you didn't know I had any family, did you? It sounds like your intel might be a little stale. But yeah, my brother handles stuff like that all the time, and I recently dragged him into running my little business with me. He kinda owes me that much. If you wait a little while, he might come back to take on your job."

I frowned. "How much longer are we talking?" As if I had any choice but to wait.

"Who knows. He comes and goes as he pleases, I only ask that he comes in a few times a month to knock something out of my to-do list. Call it community service," he said, chuckling. "Word of advice though, he hates humans and isn't much for conversation."

Oh, good.

"I see…"

I didn't see at all. I felt like I was missing something. He kept dropping hints about some family drama, which I definitely didn't want to know about, but on top of that I wasn't sure whether his advice should be taken as such or as a threat.

That said, it confirmed the other rumors I had heard about his family.

I took a seat on his couch, because I had nowhere else to be while I waited and I figured it would bother him.

"So… you're really Sparda's son?" I asked, turning my eyes away from him. "I mean… that's what I've heard, anyway. I know some people don't believe he ever existed, but if you can have an outside opinion on humans, you have to at least really be part devil, aren't you?"

"I don't know what gossip column is out there spreading rumors about me, and I don't want to," said Dante, leaning back in his chair again. "You can stay here until closing or until my brother gets back, but you're going to have to be quiet."

I guessed if he wasn't going to ask me any personal questions, or question my interest in the dagger, then I wouldn't keep probing him either. I still wasn't happy with his response, though, so I just sat there frowning and folding my arms.

But it sounded like his brother wasn't the kind of person to clock in on time, and I had gotten the idea that he didn't have a particular clock-in time to begin with. I wondered if he would even show up at all. I figured I should start getting comfortable.

I passed the time at first by looking around the room, counting objects, tracing the pattern in the ceiling. Counting the panes of glass in the window.

After a couple of hours, Dante offered me a magazine, but when I saw the risque cover, I declined. It wasn't that I was interested, it was just a bizarre gesture. I wondered if the offer had been an honest one or if he was getting tired of me sitting around in his lobby.

"You feel like taking home leftovers? I'm about to order pizza," he said, glancing up at me.

"Um…"

"I'll take requests if you want any extra toppings, but if you ask for olives I'll just kick you out now."

I started to answer, but before I could speak, there was a flash of light from the doorway.

Without saying anything at all, I turned my head slowly to see what had just happened. Even after looking, it wasn't immediately apparent just where the light had come from. Regardless, where there was nothing before, there was now another very tall man, wielding a very large sword. He looked like his fashion sense stopped aging out of middle school, which actually just about covered both of them.

I got to my feet. "...You must be the brother."

Well, I mean, I certainly hoped so, since the assumption was based mostly on hair color. I felt like the fact that he was armed was a good clue too though.

In an overly flashy gesture, he sheathed his sword and cut his eyes at me with distaste. "Is this a client?"

Dante shrugged then waved his hand at me, apparently putting his dinner plans to the side for the time being. "Sounds like it- Don't get excited though, she just needs someone to play fetch with the demonic sword she carelessly let fall into the devil realm."

"I-" Mm. "Yeah, it was pretty careless, actually. But like I said it's not especially powerful, it just has... sentimental value."

The other man raised his eyebrows as he considered this for a moment. "This sword has sentimental value?"

"It's a dagger," I said quickly. "It's important to me, anyway. I know you're saying it like that to make it sound silly, but just trust me, I really need it back."

"Does it have a name?" he asked, looking to Dante.

"What, the dagger, or me?" I shook my head, throwing my hands up. "It's called Celaeno's Gale, it was pretty much pried from my hands when I got dogpiled by a bunch of demons in the middle of a bookstore. They left right after that, so that's obviously all they were after."

He seemed to relax his shoulders slightly. "It's a more interesting offer than just another target, I'll admit."

"Right? No targets, just the dagger. I bet you're wondering where the catch is, aren't you?" grinned Dante. "You'll have to take her with you to figure out where you should be looking."

I thought I should feel more insulted than I did, knowing that he probably just didn't want to be anywhere near me because both of them had demonic blood and I didn't. But I got the idea they weren't particularly close to begin with. Then again, this new stranger seemed the kind to keep his guard up pretty high with everyone.

"My name is Medea," I said. "I can take you to the bookstore where they entered, and I can fend for myself. I don't need babysitting, I just need someone to get me into the demon realm."

"Oh, even better. Sounds like you're an escort, Verge."

'Verge' rolled his eyes slowly, craning his neck away from Dante as he turned to the door. "Let me remind you that I'm not actually obligated to do your job for you, Dante. I'm only doing this as a show of good faith. If your wish is to keep tabs on me, I suggest you don't push your luck."

I stomped my foot indignantly. "I'm going to start walking. I've got the money to cover whatever fees I need to pay for you, but when I go out that door, someone had better follow me, and I don't care which one of you it is."

Dante's brother shook his head slowly. I could tell he had a lot of thoughts about what I'd just said, but he motioned me to the door. "By all means."

Hopefully, that meant he planned on following me. I exited the demon hunter's shop, slightly frustrated. I couldn't afford to be picky, but evidently both brothers were infuriating to deal with. After all the time I'd spent sitting in Dante's lobby, I wasn't crazy about the way either of them spoke about me.

I started down the street. "It's on the other side of town. We can take my car, so you don't have to worry about gas money."

I heard him scoff, but he didn't say anything until we were buckled into my old grey sedan, nearly ten minutes down the road.

"Celaeno's Gale, was it?" he asked. "The Living Armor, Celaeno?"

I paused mentally as I slowed for a red light. I laughed, unprepared for him to press me on the matter. "What?"

"That's the artifact you're looking for, right? I doubt Dante knows very much about it, or he might have taken more consideration before accepting a job to retrieve a devil arm of any kind. You're right that it's nothing to be worried about in the hands of lesser creatures, but I know why you need it back so urgently."

I drew my lips into a line. "Why?"

"You're contracted to Celaeno," he said, pointing at his neck, though he was indicating my own. "You're hiding the seal under that necklace."

"There's nothing under my choker," I laughed, shaking my head just a little.

"But you're not a normal human," he said shortly.

It wasn't untrue. The dagger belonged to the demon, Celaeno. Her power could only be channeled through it, and I'd lost both in that scrap the other night. I was contracted to her, and as a result, had access to magicks unavailable to a regular human. Apart from that, though, part of my contract stipulated that I was to never tell anyone the nature of my contract. If I had to, I would lie. Compulsively. Which made explaining what I needed to the demon hunter very difficult.

"There's nothing strange about me," I said, clenching my jaw as I lied. "Sometimes a demonic dagger is just a demonic dagger. Either way, if it makes you feel any better, I don't have any ulterior motive."

I very much doubted anything short of me disappearing completely out of thin air would make him feel better.


	2. Chapter 2

About halfway through the drive, I realized that he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. When I told him I didn't feel like getting a ticket because of him, he told me not to get pulled over. I guessed that was reasonable, since technically it would cost him and not me.

When we arrived at the bookstore, I showed him where the proverbial veil appeared to be the thinnest.

"Here's where I was sitting, and over there is where they came in."

The store itself seemed to have received minimal damage, making it pretty obvious they were only after my dagger. Despite that, the two shelves around the place where I had been reading were emptied, with a mountain of books that belonged on them stacked neatly on and around the table. I guessed the owner would be busy reorganizing them for a while.

Dante's brother let his eyes wander over the books for a few moments, curious but apparently nothing in particular caught his attention. The entire section was dedicated to contemporary spirituality and religion and the occult, but the books I had been looking at had either been sorted away into the pile or hastily purchased by me on my way out.

"Um, you know… you never actually told me your name. I don't really want to call you by your brother's pet name for you," I said, messing with my choker.

There was a pause as he glanced at the spines of several books in one stack before coming back to me. "Vergil."

That made sense. I guessed there weren't many things 'Verge' could be short for.

As he skimmed the titles of the books, his hand recoiled from a book detailing an account on a cult that worshiped the legendary swordsman, Sparda.

I couldn't help but smile at his reaction. I'd played dumb for Dante in the name of not looking silly if I was wrong, but I felt like this confirmed what I'd heard after all. "I knew it. You really are Sparda's sons, aren't you?"

Vergil caught my eye for just a moment, a displeased expression as he turned away. "I'm not very good at this. And for your sake, you shouldn't ask questions you don't want to hear the answer to."

He clearly wasn't interested in talking about himself. I chalked it up to a wish to maintain a wall of professionalism, which I could respect.

I decided to drop the personal questions for now. "Right. Anyway, if they can get into our world, do you think we can get to theirs through here too?"

For a second, he winced at something, but he didn't answer me right away.

Instead, to my surprise, his hands reached for the sword at his hip. The blade was drawn slowly, as if he were savoring the moment, but his eyes were locked on the position in the air I'd pointed to with a degree of intensity I don't think I'd ever seen in anyone's eyes before. At least, not in the eyes of anyone not about to pop a blood vessel, anyway.

I thought about asking what he was doing, but I found myself holding my breath as the blade whistled thinly through the air, leaving a glowing trail shaped like an X in the corner of the bookshop. I briefly looked around behind us to make sure there was no one else watching, but nobody was around to see.

"What is that?" I asked, blinking. If I had access to Celaeno at the time, I'm sure she could have told me. Contracting myself to a demon is a little bit like having a field guide in my head at all times, when it came to demons. Without her, I have to rely on my books, and not all of them were accurate, or equal to real experience.

"Our passage into the demon realm," he answered, dodging my question once again, to my dismay. "Hurry, I'd like to close this quickly."

I figured I would find out soon enough. But he was right, I could feel the immense pressure pouring out of the X-shaped entrance. I stepped through the portal quickly, at his behest.

Traveling from one side to the other, I felt like I was surfacing water, like I'd been holding my breath the entire time I'd been on the other side. The air certainly wasn't any easier to breathe, it smelled completely rank, but passing through the threshold felt like a relief. I guessed you weren't supposed to linger in the doorway any longer than you have to, but I didn't care to think what could happen if the door closed on me.

Immediately after me, Vergil followed. The doorway disappeared and his sword was sheathed with its closure.

"It's not particularly safe for a human here, as you might guess," he said. "Stay close, and don't wander off."

I made a face at his instruction, but silently agreed as I followed behind him.

I sort of wished I could tell him more about my abilities, but there was the contract keeping me silent as well as no real access to them. The most I could probably muster in this condition was a gust of wind, at best. Briefly, I tried to summon a gale, and proved my theory correct. All I succeeded in doing was rustling our hair and clothing.

At this, he turned to look at me for a moment, and I averted my eyes guiltily, but with a small snort. "What? I didn't mess up your hair, did I?"

Why did I say that? I wasn't trying to antagonize him.

Thankfully unfazed, he turned his attention to the path he was carving ahead of him. "Hardly. But I am grateful you confirmed my suspicions. There's no need for you to keep up the facade."

"I wish," I mumbled, folding my arms as I walked. If I spoke simply, I might be able to communicate a little better, even if it sounded vague. "It's not that easy."

Nope, the only thing that would let me communicate to him about my contract is if he saw me tap into Celaeno's power. Which couldn't happen until he had found the dagger.

"I can help a little though," I added. "I can sense where it is."

"Your dagger?" he asked. "I suppose you would be able to. What do you feel now?"

I stopped walking for a moment and closed my eyes, honing in like a human compass on a tugging sensation I felt deep within me, pointing me to the sword. "If we're playing hot and cold… We're getting warmer. I can't tell how far away it is." I pointed in the direction of the sensation. "We should start moving this way as much as possible."

The portal we had entered through left us in some kind of tunnel. The air was thick and humid, to my distaste. The walls were somewhat spacious, for a tunnel, and it seemed to branch out somewhat randomly. Just what you'd expect from the large, beetle-like demons that had attacked me.

The culprits themselves were about the size of a small person, and stood on two legs, but they had strange insectoid faces, and hard shells encased most of their bodies. They lacked physical strength, but for the most part, so did I. A number of them, grappling me with too many spiny limbs, took me down easily after catching me off guard.

As the path branched, we encountered a few sections of tunnel that had some kind of webbing hanging from the walls, like hanging lichens. Vergil cut these away superficially, keeping them out of our path for the most part as I urged him in the direction of my dagger.

Finally, I could feel its pull much more strongly. It was very close, so I told him as much.

"Um, Dante said that you were interested in demonic relics and artifacts, so as I told him, you can keep anything else that we find, besides my dagger," I said. "I don't know if you know what it looks like, so… It's kind of long for a dagger, and it doesn't have a lot of practical use as a weapon, because it's curved in a kind of zigzag pattern. The grip is leather, and there's a bird skull on the hilt. It's pretty plain looking, but I can pick it out."

"I'm sure a pack of hoarders has nothing I'm interested in," he said, pressing his shapely lips together. "But I am interested in your dagger. Not in keeping it. I would like to see a demonstration of its abilities."

I blinked, then laughed a little. I couldn't help it. What was he asking? "You seem like you already know enough about the dagger, don't you? I'm not about to embarrass myself in front of someone like you."

He gave me an odd look. "Why would you be embarrassed?"

I waved my hand absently. "Celaeno's Gale isn't that powerful of a weapon. That sword you carry is far more impressive, and if you're really who I think you are, I don't think it will interest you."

"The Yamato," he said, gesturing to his sword. "You must have heard of it."

I think my face felt a little warm, or else it was just some kind of thermal draft, but it showed exactly how much I knew. "Um, I've heard the name. I know a little. I learn most of what I know from sketchy-sounding books; I don't have a full encyclopaedic knowledge on devil arms."

No, that was her territory. Despite being called The Living Armor, she was surprisingly scholarly. She taught me a lot of what I knew.

I heard him scoff in response as we neared what I was sure was the last bend before our search ended.

"It's strange that we haven't seen any of the denizens of these tunnels yet," he said. "If this is the end of the line, expect a struggle."

There wasn't much I could do, so I followed him a little more closely as he cleared the last section of the tunnels of their sickly silk.

Sure enough, the trail opened into a much larger cavern. The room was certainly a hoard of some kind, and it was crawling with the strange humanoid beetles that had caused this problem in the first place.

I could feel Celaeno tugging at me, guiding me to where I needed to go, but there was too much distance between me and the dagger. The only way to close it was to cross the scattered trinkets that made the terrain nearly untraversable, and then there were the cavern's tenants.

Needless to say, they were none too happy to see us.

Vergil got to work, cutting through the weaklings easily, not waiting for them to come to him. Each movement he made was calculated, and I made sure to stay out of his way. In part because I was too busy trying to find what I came for.

The ground was covered with things added to their collection, not all with demonic origins. A lot of it was just shiny garbage, ranging from silverware to plastic children's jewelry with even a slight sheen. I tried not to imagine the creatures mugging someone for their cutlery as I scrambled with uncertain footing towards my prize.

My slightly shorter than average height did me no favors trying to break through the crowd, and I was feeling nauseated from both the smell and the strange feelers they extended to try and catch me. As I came almost within reach, I hurled myself to the ground, pulling the hilt free from where it was wedged into a pile of junk, and holding it close to my body as I slid across the floor.

If Vergil wanted a demonstration, I hoped he was watching.

As I relinquished myself to Celaeno, her "armor" activated, forming around me in new layers of flesh that melded with my own. A light burst from within me, and all traces of my true body were gone, replaced with the gold-winged form of Celaeno, who protected me. I clutched the blade in a clawed hand, spreading my wings to gain some distance from the swarm.

Heavy winds solidified from the tip of my jagged athame, piercing the carapaces of my enemies, and I used the blade to call down bolts of lightning against them. By no means was I as strong as Sparda's kin, but in this form I could be a force of nature. I could feel Celaeno's ecstasy at our reunion as I parted the creatures much more easily, making my way to Vergil.

"I got what I needed, let's get out of here," I said. My lips were sealed like a mask of stone, and did not move when I spoke, despite the sound coming from within me.

Vergil pulled his blade from the chest of one of the swarm, then cut open a new portal. He pulled me through this time, not bothering to wait so he could close the door behind us.

As I tumbled to the ground with him, I felt that wave of relief once again and knew that we were no longer in the demon realm.

I rolled off of his arm when I felt him start to rise to his feet. My wings were splayed out ungracefully, face down against the floor in a way that might hurt if they were actually part of my body. Still gripping the dagger tightly in my hand, I left Celaeno's form fade away, leaving my true body just a little woozy as her power dissipated.

When I stood up, I realized Vergil had taken us back to his brother's shop, rather than the bookstore we'd come from. Did he not need me to drive us at all? I hadn't realized he could use the sword to move between two points, rather than just from one world to the other. Not that I had an understanding of it anyway.

Dante was still sitting behind his desk, looking at us like we were the first interesting things he'd seen since we left.

He nodded his head upwards at me. "Looks like you've got a few tricks up your sleeves, huh?"

I laughed, a little bit embarrassed even though it was hardly praise. "It's flashy, but that's all it is. It's nothing I could do without Celaeno's help."

The ease at which the words came to me made me pause, peering into their eyes for a split second. If I could talk about it directly, then that meant that both of them really had seen me transform. I didn't like feeling like I was being scrutinized by the two of them, but I guessed this is what I'd signed up for when I hired them.

Apart from that, I could feel the demon contracted to me internally preening at my admission of reliance on her, something she considered to be praise.

"I guess we should actually talk about your fee," I added quickly, changing the subject.

We talked it out for a few moments before agreeing on an amount.

"Oh, I've got cash on me right now, but it won't cover the whole fee," I said, nodding solemnly. I tried not to meet Vergil's eye, which was easy because he seemed to only be looking through me. "I'll have to stop by the bank and bring the rest tomorrow, if that's alright."

Dante sighed, but reluctantly agreed.

As I pulled my walled out of my pocket and began rifling through it for the amount I owed the legendary hunter, Celaeno spoke to me in my head for the first time since we were brought back together. "You lied to them? You have more than enough here to pay them off."

I tried to refrain from answering her, but I hid a little smile. Yeah, I did. But I had no ulterior motive. I would be back the following day to pay the rest, as promised.

Vergil had moved away from me, and was holding his hand out expectantly to Dante, who passed him a cut of the money. There was a casualness to the gesture, as if he was uninterested in the money itself. He had the same look in his eyes as he looked over the unorganized tomes at the bookstore.

"Actually… I have another request," I said, smiling just a little as I glanced up at them. "Could you take me back to my car? I don't exactly feel like walking across town…"

Dante paused, then snickered quietly. "We're not trying to hold anyone hostage until they pay up. Send her back, Vergil, I can't believe you stranded her out here."

Stuffing his pay into his coat pocket, he muttered something to his brother, then cut open a new portal before my eyes even registered his movements. He jerked his thumb at the doorway, nodding to me.

"I'll be back tomorrow, to pick up the rest of my cut," he said to Dante.

I thanked them, then walked through the portal, which closed behind me in an instant.

On the other side, I was leaning against my car, ignoring the sound of dull silver paint peeling against my coat.

"Are you interested in studying them?" Celaeno asked me, a tentative tug at her words. "I'm not surprised you went that far just to find my dagger, but I'm a little surprised you managed to find Sparda's boys."

"I wasn't sure that's who they were, when I went to meet Dante, but that's not why I went to them for help," I said, letting myself into the driver's seat. "They seem like interesting people."

I mean, I guessed. I didn't really know enough about them to call them interesting. While it was unusual and strange to me that they were such unique beings, it wasn't that fact alone that made me want to find an excuse to go back.

I kept thinking about the two moments where I could feel gears turning in Vergil's head as I watched his eyes, but I couldn't read him at all. Or Dante either, for that matter. I knew that people wore masks when they presented themselves to others, but whatever front Vergil was putting up was a thin veneer. He was hiding something, but not being very secretive about it.

For whatever reason, I just couldn't place what it was his empty eyes meant, but I felt myself longing to know more.


	3. Chapter 3

I had gotten my hopes up that Vergil would be there when he promised to get his pay from Dante, but when I returned with the other half of the money, he hadn't arrived yet. However, there was someone else there with Dante.

A tall woman with blonde hair that fell down her back the way only a Hollywood star's could was there, talking to Dante about something until I walked in.

"She's not human," whispered Celaeno.

I couldn't detect demonic energy without Celaeno, but I did feel something rolling off of her in waves, like a warning. It was faint, but I could tell my partner was right. Still, though I knew that Dante wasn't a saint himself, the ease at which she talked to him made me feel like I didn't need to be afraid of her.

When her teasing faded as I walked in, Dante seemed to shove her conversation aside for the moment, leaning forward to greet me. He certainly seemed happy to see me, since I was bringing him money and a brief distraction.

The woman winked at me, and I had to look away because I was too embarrassed to acknowledge her gaze.

I thanked Dante again for lending me his help (sort of), then drove back to my home.

My home was a shady looking apartment on the other side of town. My neighbors were actually very nice, and so it wasn't anyone in the area I was afraid of, but I had never felt particularly safe at night until I met Celaeno. It was a general insecurity rooted in bad experiences, even though I knew I had nothing to fear now. I may not be as strong as Sparda's kin, but I was stronger than a human. That was the only strength that mattered to me.

I dropped my bag on the table on my way in, then fell face first onto my old couch, a beat up hand-me-down from the previous tenant of the apartment, which was in pretty good shape despite the cracks and tears in the leather. I had given it a new cover, both because I wasn't a fan of the feeling of leather sticking to my legs when I stood up, and to hide the damage. The coffee table was covered in books I hadn't finished reading, as well as discarded coffee mugs that still had a bit of whatever I was drinking in the bottom. I was good about not leaving food lying around, and was careful not to leave behind any actual trash, but I was pretty lousy at finishing a book before starting a new one. And remembering where I had put my current coffee mug.

"Now that the job is done, I don't have any reason to go back," I said, sighing.

"Make up a reason," suggested Celaeno. "Don't give up without trying."

I rolled over, then reached for the notebook I had most recently been scrawling in. It was a hobby of mine, documenting my studies on encounters with demons since I met Celaeno. She encouraged it, teaching me what she knew, saying that it would most benefit our contract if I educated myself on the affairs of devils. I supposed that when the time came to fulfill my end of the bargain, it would be better to have that knowledge.

I wasn't an expert, and I wasn't that interested in being nosy about other people's business, but I was interested in the two brothers. They probably weren't the only people in the history of creation to have been born from demonic lineage, but if there were others, they were definitely rare. I couldn't help but be curious about them.

So I kept making excuses to go back. I tried to come up with new jobs to get their assistance with, but all I had were things I could take care of easily myself. Demonic pest control, essentially. As part of my contract, I had to cull lesser demons in order to restore Celaeno's power. It was a little ghoulish, and while more often than not it's unwise for a human to trust the word of a demon, Celaeno assured me that the demons we would target were more dangerous to let breed than to leave alone. After encountering them more than once, I was inclined to agree.

But as I anticipated, none of the jobs interested Dante, and the handful of times I was there, I only caught a glimpse of Vergil in passing. I was pretty sure Dante could tell that I didn't really need him, but I didn't think he'd take me up on my offer anyway. I wasn't sure what kind of job I had to offer him in order to get his attention, but I clearly didn't have it. I didn't even know what had caused him to pass my original offer to his brother in the first place.

On my way out of the shop, I ran into the woman from my first visit since getting Celaeno back as she was just arriving. I turned my eyes away from her again, both unsure about her nature as well as feeling shy beside her.

She stopped me by putting her hand on my shoulder just as our paths crossed in the middle, causing me to flinch when her touch sparked a static shock against my sweater. She didn't seem to notice, but the sound was loud enough to startle me.

"Hey, you're the woman who's been dropping by here lately, right?" she asked me, pulling her hand away once she saw I had her attention. "I'm Trish. I think I've seen you here before, but I heard about you from Dante."

Was he talking about me now? Too many repeat visits was a bad idea, I should probably dial it back, if not give up entirely.

"Um… I guess that's me?" I said hesitantly.

"Don't worry about him," said Trish, no doubt sensing my insecurity. "He'd complain about anything. I don't know why he decided to open a business when he spends so much time putting himself in debt instead of taking on clients to get himself out of it."

I shifted my weight to one foot. She seemed nice enough, but to me it sounded a lot like she was about to ask me for something.

"You know what else he told me, though?" she asked, putting a hand on her hip as she leaned closer to me. She pointed to my neck. "He said you've got something special. Come on, be honest with me. You've got a contract with a demon, don't you?"

I frowned. "I don't know what gave him that idea. All I did was ask him to help me find a relic I lost, and he sent his brother with me instead."

She laughed, a warm sound that clearly wasn't mocking, but felt strange to hear directed at me anyway. "He said you wouldn't admit it. Nevermind that, I just wanted to give you some advice."

"Advice?" I asked, tilting my head.

She nodded, golden waves falling gracefully. I looked away again. "You're trying to get closer to Dante, aren't you? Unless you've got something really big, he'll never take the job. He's been doing this long enough to be picky."

So I'd noticed. I'd been in contact with a man who claimed to have once been something like an agent to him, who had told me how to find him in the first place. I knew my odds were especially slim when I'd come here. But it wasn't just Dante I was interested in. I got the feeling she had the wrong idea about what I was doing here.

"You can't get his attention as a client, so ask him for work instead," she said, showing me too many teeth when she smiled.

That got me for a second. "What?"

"If you really can handle yourself well enough to have a stable contract with a demon, then you can take on some of the jobs he doesn't want," she said. "His business has branched out some, in the last few years. He turns away plenty of clients with jobs that could be done by any half-assed exorcist. If you want to get closer to him, tell him you want work."

I couldn't figure out why she was offering what she was, but I didn't say anything for a few moments. Her idea made sense, I guessed. I just wasn't sure what it was she wanted from me. It didn't sound like she needed a favor, or like she was going to ask me a thousand questions that I couldn't answer by my contract. Was she just being nice?

"In Dante's business, there is plenty of reason not to trust just any stranger that walks through the door," said Celaeno, apparently contemplating the offer as well. "No offense, but you definitely qualify as a stranger."

I heard her, but only barely over the sound of busted up cobblestone under my boots as I turned on my heel to go back inside. This was probably my best chance, whether I did it now or waited to ask.

Trish followed behind me as I steeled myself, walking right back up to Dante's desk.

"Whoa, what now?" he asked, blinking at me. "I told you, I'm not interested. You can take care of small fry on your own, the fee wouldn't even be worth it to you."

"Forget it," I said, a little more forcefully than I'd meant to. "I'm not here to offer you a job, I'm here to ask for one."

His expression went blank. "What."

I paused to slow down, rubbing the back of my hand on my forehead. "I want to work for you. Trish says you get more jobs than you'll ever take, and I know from experience that all I'm doing is adding to your reject pile. Hire me, and I'll work for a percentage of the fees collected from the jobs you don't want."

I saw his eyes dart to Trish, who said nothing, and then back to me. He sighed. "I've got enough hands around here. I don't need one more person bagging my kills and swindling me out of my cash."

That caused me to turn and look back at Trish, the obvious suspect, with a look of incredulity. She only shrugged, rolling her eyes and pouting her lips like she was innocent. I almost believed her.

"I'm not here to steal from you," I said, turning back to Dante. I pointed at my choker. "I'd be bringing more money in, not taking it from you. If you weren't going to take the gigs in the first place, you'd be turning a profit if you take me on. And it benefits me just to kill the weaker demons you don't want anything to do with. Trust me, I think you'd be better off with me than without me."

He leaned back too far in his chair, looking between us again. I could hear the gears turning in his head, but I couldn't read his expression.

"Alright, listen. I've got three other contacts who actually work for me," he said, leaning forward while he thought. "That's my brother, who comes here in person, and two other people who are more or less running their own show out of the back of an RV. Well, really only one of them actually works for me, the other one just owns the van."

I tilted my chin up curiously. "Is that right? Sounds like you could use someone else here, on your own turf."

"Maybe," he said, waving his hand. "What if I give you a trial run? I'll run it by my brother, and if he's alright with it, then maybe I'll hire you."

Was that it? I relaxed my shoulders, surprised that he hadn't flat out turned me down. But I wasn't out of the woods yet, either. Vergil might be a problem.

"So… you'll let me know, then?" I asked.

"Sure, why not?" he said. "Vergil's supposed to come by sometime today or tomorrow to take care of a call I got this morning. If he's up to it, I'll let you go along with him."

A grin tweaked at the corners of my mouth, and I glanced back at Trish, whose surprisingly warm eyes twinkled back at me as she gave me a thumbs up.

"Let me give you my phone number," I said, holding my hand out for a pen. "I'll be home all night, so if you call and I'm not home, leave a message for me and I'll show up wherever you need me."

"Yeah, yeah. What was your name again? Medea?" he asked, passing me a pen and paper.

I wrote both my name and number down just to be safe.

"I'll be waiting for your call," I said, smiling just a little too sweetly.

"Sure," he said, grinning back. "If you can survive a job with my brother, you'll handle yourself just fine around here."


	4. Chapter 4

After running the idea of my employment past his brother (who responded with hesitant approval, to my surprise), he agreed. I fully expected Vergil to refuse on principle, especially after Dante's multiple warnings that his brother was difficult at best to get along with.

Despite my expectations, as Dante had promised I found myself standing beside Vergil on a small homestead owned by our client.

My very first client, a younger woman named Cheryl, was showing us the perimeter of the homestead she had purchased with her two roommates. They had a nice, green operation running, and even had some livestock-but unsurprisingly, the number of animals they were raising was steadily shrinking, thanks to whatever had taken residence on their land.

"When we first bought the house and the land around it, the old owner warned us not to go outside at night," she said. "I thought it was just some superstition, but ever since we got our chickens, we've been having trouble."

She walked us by their chicken run, where a dozen or so chickens were strutting around, apparently unaware of any danger they could be in. There were a few trees around the run. On one side, a tree Cheryl had assured me was a peach tree, though it had been dead for some time, on another, a pecan tree, and nearest to where we stood, a small white dogwood tree.

"At first, I thought it was just a fox, or maybe a coyote, so we started penning the girls up at night, but the next day, I found a body outside the run, with the latch still closed," she added, sighing as she watched the birds.

"You're sure that all of them were inside when you locked up?" I asked.

"I definitely sense an unusual presence," said Celaeno, scoffing in my ear.

"I'm certain there's a demonic presence here," said Vergil almost simultaneously, as if to nail it in.

Cheryl nodded vigorously, relieved to have some validation. "I thought we'd made a mistake at first, but like I said, the run was exactly like I left it. I'm absolutely sure they were all inside and secure."

I also chose to ignore the sound of Celaeno gloating in my head, instead glancing at Vergil with an optimistic shrug.

"The last time it happened, I heard the chickens fussing, and I decided to go check on them, just in case," she said, frowning. I could see her twisting the beads on a bracelet she wore on her right hand. "I didn't see anything, no animal tracks or anything, and all of the chickens were asleep peacefully. I actually didn't stop to count, though, because I got this feeling like someone was watching me from the fields."

"I ran without looking back," she said, chewing on already too short nails. "My two roommates left yesterday to go into town for a few days, and when I realized I was going to be here all alone, I decided to do something about it. And just this morning, I found one of our goats in the yard… I couldn't really tell what it was, at first."

My eyes darted from the hen house in front of us, to the nearby fields, where some sort of tall, grassy crop was growing. I couldn't sense presences like that on my own, so I raised Celaeno's Gale towards the field, holding the handguard of the dagger like a dowsing rod. Sure enough, I was picking up traces of something that felt like a rancid tug at my fingertips. Vergil nodded to me solemnly, so I kept that tidbit from the clearly shaken girl.

It certainly sounded like something out of a stock-standard horror movie. I wondered how three girls had lived here for what sounded like "long enough," without incident. Even I was feeling a little creeped out just standing there.

"We'll take a look around," I said reassuringly. "Until we take care of this, I think you'd better keep following the old owner's advice, and stay indoors at night at all costs."

Cheryl nodded. "I think so too. You two be careful. Even if you're the best, I'm sure even you could use some good luck."

She took off the bracelet she had been fiddling with, and passed it to me by clasping one of my hands, then pulling it carefully over my wrist. Thanking us again, she headed inside.

I showed the bracelet to Vergil, upon looking closer and realizing that its main feature was an evil eye amulet.

Celaeno spoke up. "This is probably the only thing protecting her that night. Assuming it's really got some power, and isn't just a cheap trinket. It certainly feels like the real thing to me."

I relayed what she said to Vergil.

"If the demon we're looking for has any amount of power, I doubt that would have protected her for very long," he said, looking at it grimly.

I decided to keep it on, just for safekeeping.

We started inspecting the property, without delving too deeply into the fields. Apart from my belief that our target hadn't spent very long in the field, I had no interest in picking ticks off of myself that evening, or any other.

"I find that humans have a surprising sixth sense for self preservation, despite their love of buying infested houses," Vergil commented idly.

"It's right up there above our love of reselling our previously purchased haunted houses," I joked, though I wasn't smiling, and neither was he.

I knew that Vergil disliked company, particularly that of humans, but the way he spoke as if he wasn't also partially human himself struck me as odd. Dante had declined to give me any details, but he mentioned that his brother had actually mellowed out. A little, anyway. If this was mellow, I wondered what he used to be like.

He clearly wasn't very good at talking to people, and had been more than happy to let me do the talking. From what little conversation I had with him, though, that might have been the best way to go anyway.

While exploring, I found myself paying a little too close attention to him, like I was observing him. I spent a great deal of time either studying or doing exactly the kind of work Dante was testing me out on now (except without pay), so people-watching came to me too easily. I kept wondering what made a person the way he was, especially with what little I knew about him. Mostly, I kept telling myself to mind my own business. And Celaeno to mind hers.

"Stay out of things that don't concern you," she said, catching me staring at him just a little too long with starstruck eyes. "The sons of Sparda are dangerous."

I knew just enough about demons to think they were all dangerous, but I had a job to do, so I shut her out of my head for a little while so I could start poking around with my dagger once again. There were traces of demonic energy everywhere, particularly in places with such concentration of energy that I had to assume that they were where the mangled bodies of their animals had been found. It was actually a little difficult to suss out a source, which is what was probably keeping Vergil from pointing it out immediately as well, since he could feel it as well as Celaeno could.

I made my way back to him, where he was inspecting a building that appeared to have been left virtually untouched since the previous owner bailed.

There was an old lawnmower that clearly hadn't been moved in years, and several cans of paint lined the weathered wooden interior shelves. Vergil turned one of the cans over, pursing his lips together tightly while he thought. He certainly looked out of place, everything here seemed soft and out of focus, like an old-timey photo, and there he was in the center of the powdery dirt floor, with his slick hair and mostly leather outfit.

"What sort of creature do you think we're looking at here?" I asked him, coughing into my hand to try and hide a laugh.

He thought for a moment, before placing his hand on the rusty knob of a small door in the back of the shed. The shed did appear somewhat longer from front to back than the section that covered the dusty mower and miscellaneous tools, I realized. However, when the door was opened, it was stuffed front to back with even more miscellany, not even enough room to enter. There was an unknown white powder that looked a lot like it might have been some kind of gardening supply scattered across the floor. "Whatever it is, it moves around a lot at night. Time of day wouldn't normally stop a demon from killing, if that's what it wanted, but I have heard of more base creatures running on a nocturnal schedule."

"Maybe we should come back here at night," I said.

He closed the door again.

"That seems to be the best course of action for the moment," he said, frowning. "These old buildings, and particularly that run down guest house, would probably be the most likely places to house an entity like the one we're trying to find, but whatever it is we're looking for isn't here now."

I looked out across the farmyard at the "guest house," which was an even older structure than the house the girls actually lived in. It certainly was run down, and somehow overgrown as well as manicured, at the same time. At least, I suspected that the shriveled blooms of morning glories had been planted on purpose, when I saw them. The stone steps looked rickety, the chimney running up its side was partially collapsed, and when we looked inside, the main room was littered with ancient looking appliances, the floorboards were rotted and caved-in in some places.

"I guess they do look pretty suspicious," I agreed, starting to walk back across the grounds to tell Cheryl our plan. "But I feel bad that we have to use their animals as bait."

Vergil shook his head. "No, I doubt our target has a real interest in the animals. I'm sure that if we come back after dark, it will come after us instead."

Ah, I hadn't fully considered that. Yay.

"I guess either one of us would probably be more appealing prey than a chicken," I said, a little morbidly. "But it doesn't look like it's using the bodies for sustenance… Is it stealing their life energy?"

"I expect that between the two of us, it's more likely to go after you, since you appear to be a normal human without Celaeno's armor," he said, nonchalantly. "And yes, most likely. If it were just hungry, there probably wouldn't be a body left to find in the first place."

I didn't say anything, despite the unease settling in my stomach as he knocked on the front door. I hoped that he just hadn't realized how uncomfortable what he'd said was, but I wondered. I really doubted he was threatening me directly, but he really needed to work on his people skills.

We let ourselves in to chat with the client, and tell her what we'd discovered so far.

When we returned that night, from a distance it was difficult to believe that there was a demon of any sort prowling the farmyard. The night sky was far clearer than any I'd seen in a long time.

Vergil gave a short word of caution before we entered the property. I wondered if he knew already what our target was, but it seemed unlikely that he would withhold that information.

The farther in we went, however, the more I started to feel uncomfortable. There was a sudden, intense pressure, that was certainly not there when we had been there earlier. It was so much, that even I could sense it already, even without resorting to dowsing. The hairs on my neck stood on end as we walked the perimeter of the hen house.

The old peach tree that grew gnarled and knotted next to the structure seemed somehow sinister, its naked branches chasing the stars into the endless sky. If I stared too deeply, I thought I might fall in after them.

Behind us, I heard a rustling from the nearby tall grass.

Without realizing it, I had walked directly into Vergil, and was now hanging onto his sleeve.

"Medea," he said firmly, bringing me to my senses.

"You'll be happy to know that noise was just a field mouse," teased Celaeno, prompting a sigh from me.

"Sorry," I said, taking a step back from him. I shoved my hands into my pockets to prevent further confusion.

The field seemed closer than before, I thought. Or had we moved closer to it?

"What are you afraid of?" she asked. "Use me, if you have to. It's not like this is your first time dealing with devils."

"I don't want to waste any energy," I spoke aloud.

It was true that I couldn't access or make use of Celaeno's magic without donning her armor, but saving that power until it was needed was crucial. I never knew when I would need it, so I had to be clever instead. Vergil would make it easier, but I hated relying on others too much.

"Let's check out the old guest house." This time, I was talking to Vergil, but I admitted to myself that I was eager to get away from the field.

Vergil nodded, then started walking in that direction.

I didn't look back as our footsteps swished through the grass to the center of the homestead, which consisted of the main house, where Cheryl and her roommates lived, the garage, which was actually just a wide shed with a tin roof, and the guest house.

Nearby, there was a tall coniferous tree of some kind, with drooping branches and perpetually falling tiny pinecones, growing beside the hedged-off driveway.

I entered the guest house first, pulling a clip-on flashlight from my pocket. It was just as we left it, broken floorboards, metal scrap lying everywhere. The air was scented strongly like sweet-smelling dirt, and decades of dust.

Across the room, there were stairs leading up to the second level. I could only assume it had once been the bedroom, since there were ancient looking bed frames all but rusted to the walls.

Apart from that, there was surprisingly little to see.

Vergil took a step towards the single rectangular window on the far end of the room away from the stairs, facing the main house.

"It's bad luck to look out a window at night," I said, humming a little as I glanced that direction myself.

Just as I did so, I thought I saw something outside myself, watching the bushes outside part as if something feral moved through them. Vergil must have seen it too, whatever it was, because he gripped the handle of his sword, then started for the window.

"Don't you dare-" I started, but it was too late, he was already throwing himself out the glassless windowpane.

I wasn't as daring, and I found myself scrambling back down the rickety wooden stairs to meet him outside. I hadn't had time to process what I had seen, whatever it was blurring past the main house's entrance before my eyes could even settle.

Needless to say, Vergil beat me outside, but he was standing perfectly still, with his hand gripping his sword defensively. He seemed to have lost track of the creature, making his dramatic exit slightly more frustrating.

Just as I was wondering if I'd seen anything at all, I heard a sharp hiss, and then suddenly my feet were knocked out from under me.

I spat as the creature clawed at me, tumbling with it across the yard like a pair of angry cats. I clutched at my neck, both trying to protect it as well as reaching for my contract's seal on my throat.

Celaeno's armor enveloped me in stone and feathers, transforming me into the harpy demon's form, but that couldn't stop the creature's assault. I lashed out with my dagger, and succeeded in disentangling myself from its spiny fingers.

I beat my wings in the air, scrambling to get away from my attacker. Somehow the struggle had taken us from the old house, to just in front of the tin garage, maybe 10 feet away.

Vergil had followed, his sword drawn, but he didn't risk attacking me by mistake, a fact that he seemed visibly annoyed by. A moment later, I realized the other reason he hadn't attempted to help me-I saw no sign of my attacker.

"It's invisible," he confirmed, looking no less tense than a few seconds ago.

I could hear the grass and gravel of the driveway crunch under its feet. In my haste, I used my dagger to summon a bolt of lightning, which missed completely and did nothing but make it shriek in fear.

"How do you fight something you can't see?" I asked, doing my best to keep track of its movements.

"Make it bleed," said Vergil, though he was clearly not in a joking mood.

"Paint," I said quickly, and without any other explanation.

I took off from the ground, but as I tried to make my mad dash to the tool shed, I felt something wind its way around my scaled leg.

Deciding I was absolutely not putting up with that, I kicked at it with my free leg, slashing at it with long talons. It hissed and clicked, but didn't release me.

Using my magic again, I struck it with lightning once more, this time hitting it dead on. The smell of its burnt flesh was absolutely rancid, but as it seized, I was able to kick it away-directly into Vergil, who let out the most disgusted sound I've ever heard a person make as it frantically barreled into him.

I decided to apologize later, turning my back to him once more in a flurry of feathers leading all the way to the shed, where I had seen some old paint cans earlier.

I rifled through the cans for a moment, realizing that if they were really all that old, it was likely that the paint was useless by now, but some of them did look newer than the others. Mixed or not, if there was wet pigment, it would do. I sort of half tried to shake the smallish can in my hands, but figured there was no use in wondering, as long as the pigment could outline our enemy. As long as I didn't miss, how even of a coating it received didn't matter.

When I got back, Vergil was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, there was a new demon.

I had to admit, the sight scared the shit out of me at first, I'd never seen anything like it. It stood at least two heads taller than me, even in Celaeno's form, and was covered head to tail in jagged reptilian scales. The face was almost indiscernible, save for rows of terrifying teeth and strange horns. The air around it was ice cold, and the temperature of the night air was only dropping; if I thought that the pressure in the air from our target was bad, this was a thousand times worse. I knew that even if I wasn't wearing the armor, the demon's presence would feel absolutely suffocating.

I jumped out of my skin when the beast hissed in pain as it seemed to wrench something away from itself, holding it at horrifyingly-bladed arm's length before turning to me. I traced the line of bioluminescent blue across its chest, in the shape of a V, with the same light pouring from the blades of its arms and the horns on its head.

"What are you staring at? Get the paint!"

Oh, oops.

I looked down at the paint can, before using my claws to pry the lid off of the paint can. Without hesitation, I hurled the paint at the demon's arm, splashing it all over his arm, as well as creating a nice silhouette of my invisible target.

It was at this point that I could finally see the writhing creature through dripping white paint, its long body roughly the size of a large dog, with many-fingered limbs like worms or the roots of trees. Its head was shaped a bit like an onion, with a long torso. I could see it gnashing its teeth and grasping in vain at Vergil's arm as he hurled it away from himself.

Now as it squirmed and hissed angrily, both of us could see it with ease.

I raised my dagger, slashing through the air that solidified into razorlike blades, cutting through the air at the demon. It gurgled saliva and paint as the blades connected, injuring it.

I went in for the kill, driving my dagger down into its head.

It cried out one last time, before its body faded away into ink and watery paint, leaving only its life essence for me to harvest. Which I did, transforming back into my own form to conserve my energy.

My head felt like I'd stood up too quickly, but I moved towards Vergil, who still stood there as that giant reptilian beast, whatever emotion he was feeling impossible to read in his current form.

Unsteadily, I placed my hand on his paint-free arm to steady myself. The scales and scutes were bitter cold to touch, which didn't surprise me in the least, but for a few moments it brought a sense of relief, like a living ice pack.

"Are you hurt?" I asked, looking up at him. He was already taller than me, but like this, the difference was staggering. I realized that I could see his eyes, but they were the same blue light, burning coldly down at me.

I also realized I was probably more hurt than he was, covered in scratches, and woozy from using Celaeno's power.

"Worry about yourself," he said, letting me lean on him for just a moment. "Even though your contract gives you power a normal human could never tap into, the human body isn't made to withstand a demon's power."

"I'm not dying," I complained, standing up. But he was probably right, I was tired. "I already replenished my energy, I'll be alright in a bit."

"I didn't mean to throw that thing directly at your face, by the way," I added, ignoring how I could see my breath.

"When I transform back, there won't be a single scratch on me," he said. "As I said, worry about yourself."

A moment later, he did return to the human-shaped form I was accustomed to, and I saw that he was right. The only sign of our struggle was the sleeve of his coat, stained with milky white pigment from the paint.

Apart from the natural warmth of the evening starting to settle in, I had other things on my mind. "If it's alright that I ask, what was that, anyway?"

Vergil glanced over his shoulder at me, uncertain. I felt him breathe a small sigh. "Nothing creates strength more than dire necessity. It's… a happy result of nearly two decades of strife."

I snorted, then stepped back from him finally. "That's a hell of a battle scar. Was it worth it?"

He shrugged, finally turning to face me. "It can seem to be, at times. Let's inform our client that our job is done."

As he finished speaking, he started walking from where we stood in front of the shed to the main house, but before he made it very far, I reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him.

"It's really late. If she's asleep, we shouldn't wake her. I've got some sticky notes in my car," I said. "Let's just leave a note and come back in the morning."

I would drive here by myself if Vergil wouldn't come back, if it meant not waking the poor girl up.

At some point, though, I realized that coming back would mean spending the night in the next motel I could find. Vergil could take us anywhere he'd been before, or open a portal to the demonic realm, but that didn't help us on the way to a new location, and it certainly didn't help me move my car back when we were leaving.

I informed Vergil of my plan to find lodgings for the night.

"I know you can just disappear to wherever it is you go on a whim, but it would be really nice if you stayed with me, since it's a bit of a trip back," I said, back at my car, in the driver's seat once more.

He actually raised an eyebrow at me. I didn't know people over the age of 12 did that.

"I wasn't planning on leaving you here," he said. "I'm not in a hurry to be anywhere else. Unless you want me to leave."

I shook my head as I started my car. "Absolutely not. I don't think I can stand the silence."

"I can't fill that silence, if you're looking for a conversation," he said, sighing.

"Honestly, sitting in silence with you is better than sitting in silence by myself," I said. "Don't worry if you don't have anything to say."

Celaeno chimed in disapprovingly. "If you're lonely, you can talk to me."

"Besides, I'm not going to subject you to having to listen to half a conversation with Celaeno," I said, ignoring her, though it was all in good fun.

Vergil scoffed at that, and I could see through the corner of my eye that his mouth was twisted ever so slightly into a wry smile. "I've been meaning to ask you out of that."

"About Celaeno?" I asked. "What? Are you looking to form a contract?"

I almost swore that his expression looked guilty, but since I had only been teasing him, I wasn't sure what he had to feel guilty about.

"Not at all," he said. "I know a little about contracts myself, though. I was just interested in hearing about your experience."

Celaeno bristled in the back of my mind. "Don't tell him too much."

"I might be able to tell you a little," I said carefully. "But you remember when we met, I couldn't even admit that I was in a contract at all-I'm not supposed to say very much about the details."

Vergil folded his arms. "What if we make a trade? I'll ask a question, and answer one in return."

I pleaded quietly to Celaeno, though not even she heard it.

The harpy made a sound akin to a sigh. "We'll see."

"I'll answer what I can. I really don't mean to be so secretive," I answered.

I think I saw him shrug again.

"It's fine. Let me ask my first question," he started. "No one but you can hear the demon; am I correct to assume that you have no other means of communicating internally?"

That caught me slightly off guard. Did my chatter bother him?

"Um, no, we don't," I said, slowing the car down to let a group of reluctant deer cross in front of us. "Neither of us can do anything more intrusive than read each other's general moods. We don't really keep too many secrets though, it doesn't really benefit us."

Vergil made a noise of contemplation. "I see. Your turn."

I had been too busy contemplating deer myself to think of a question of my own. Probably safer than letting my mind wander, in these conditions.

"Uh… So you don't have any other family besides your brother, do you?"

I could almost feel him physically recoil from the question. I realized he'd probably meant for me to ask him questions of a similar nature.

"I do," he said after a moment. "I have a son."

Only a little surprising. I was old enough that most people my age had kids starting high school soon, so I was used to it, and Vergil was probably a few years older than me. The only part that made it strange was his own origins, really.

"Aww, how old is he?" I asked, only somewhat joking.

There was a pause. "That's two questions. My turn."

Ouch, it sounded like I'd crossed a line. The pause made me think he wasn't sure, or at least that his situation was more complicated than I realized. I wondered, but paired with what little else I knew about his past, I had to conclude that Vergil didn't seem to be the fatherly type. It was an unspoken rule not to bring up the brothers' relationship, but I wished I had realized that family was a bad subject altogether.

"Are there any extra benefits to Celaeno's presence within you?"

I had to pause for Celaeno to grant her permission for each answer, but I was glad to give it to him.

"Sure. I pretty much don't get sick. Genetic disease, terminal illness, the common cold- it's in her best interest to keep me alive for as long as possible, so I might even have a longer than average lifespan. Still doesn't protect me from bird flu, though," I said, laughing despite my misstep.

I paused. "Give me a second to think of a less personal question. You seem like you've got a lot of sore spots and I really don't want to piss you off. No offense."

Surprisingly, he didn't seem to take offense to that.

During the drive, I found out a few weirdly specific facts, but nothing deeper than my first question. He didn't really pay attention to pop culture, and especially didn't seem to know about much of any happenings in at least the last 15 years. He liked to read in his spare time, but even though he was barely employed, he didn't seem to have a lot of time on his hands. Most of his time away from work was spent wandering (the demon realm, as far as I could guess) which did explain a lot. In exchange, I answered simple questions about my contract, but very little about the exact details or the start of our partnership.

The motel wasn't too far from the homestead, in theory, but nothing in the middle of nowhere was really that close together. The entire area was pretty much farmland on one side, a bank and a motel on the other, with a 7-11 somewhere in the middle where the road forked.

We checked in, and I discovered, to my chagrin, that Vergil didn't seem to have any identifying papers on him, or even a real last name. He pulled out an obviously fake ID with the name "Anthony Redgrave." The ID itself looked real enough, but knowing he was a twin, even though the photo was a few years old, I could tell it was Dante in the photo.

I told him to put the ID away and handed him the room key while I went to park.

Mm, wait. Wasn't Redgrave the name of that city that completely vanished off the map a little less than a year ago? There were news broadcasts and footage of waves of people running from… something. Definitely demonic activity, but that was all I knew about the incident.

I entered the motel room to find Vergil sitting quietly in an uncomfortable looking chair.

"I have one more question," he said.

I did too, but I definitely wasn't going to ask it now.

"Sure," I said, taking a seat on one of the two beds, which were much more comfortable than the couch.

"May I see your contract's seal?" he asked, tilting his head. "A contract always leaves a physical mark."

Whoa, even more surprising than his other questions. It was only that I'd never been asked before that made it so weird.

It had been… a while since I had my neck uncovered, apart from during a shower. I was always wearing something to cover up. Usually some kind of thick choker, but sometimes a scarf or a tall turtleneck would do. In this case, I was wearing a thick leather band, closed in the back with a particularly stubborn clasp. Obviously, I hadn't expected to take it off.

I nodded, standing up so I could give him a closer look, but quickly found that the clasp, unsurprisingly, was stuck.

"Um, hold on," I said, still fiddling with it. I couldn't seem to get a grip on it.

He waited patiently for a few moments, but I was making no progress, which probably bothered me more than him. After those moments were passed with me frowning directly at the floor while I tried to undo my necklace, he rose to his feet beside me.

"Let me try," he said.

I almost didn't mind the idea at this point, and so I held the hair that just barely hung in the way in place so he could see better. I was barely used to having anyone touch me anywhere, let alone such a vulnerable place, but if it meant getting rid of the ridiculous decoration around my neck, I would let him. His hands had a comfortable coolness to them. When he had almost no trouble removing it, I was sad that he removed the choker, and his hands with it.

My bare skin had a colorless mark across it, nearly all the way around, in the shape of a pair of wings that spanned from my throat to the back of my neck. It was a shade or two lighter than my skin, looking like an old scar, or one of those trendy white ink tattoos, only mine would never fade.

I held my chin high for him to see, turning my head to the side, but I glanced at him through the corner of my eye.

"Interesting," he said.

After what felt like only a few seconds, he turned away, putting the choker back in my hands. I guessed I would be going without for a bit, when I realized he had simply broken the clasp. I wasn't too upset, since… it was probably a better idea to replace it anyway, but I was pretty sure my eyes bugged out of my head when I looked down at it.

I looked back up.

"What was that about?" I asked, squinting at him. "Why are you so interested in my contract?"

He was standing by the other bed, looking like he was debating going to sleep. "Not in yours specifically. I'm interested in information that's generally hard to come by, since there are so many false accounts and conmen trying to sell the occult. In a manner of speaking, I once had a contract myself. The details are unimportant, and the ending isn't a happy one, but it's interesting to see different cases. At least, to me."

"You?" I asked, blinking as I sat back down on the bed I'd claimed. "And you broke it? Or did something happen to your demon?"

Vergil shook his head, making a face like he wasn't interested in elaborating. "It wasn't exactly broken, but that was another lifetime ago. I'm not the same person I was then."

I stretched out on the bed, propping my face up with my hands. "How long ago?"

He paused.

"It… might have been last June?"

I couldn't help but let out a short laugh. "What? So it's barely been a year. I don't want to make fun of you, but it sounds a little dramatic. If it meant that much to you, then I'm sorry."

From his expression, I could tell he wasn't especially pleased with my response, so my smile fell immediately. He had his jaw set in a way that looked particularly tense, which might have been an accomplishment in itself. "I said what I said."

He didn't say anything else for a few moments, so I decided to completely drop whatever curiosities I'd had earlier.

"Yeah, I'm sorry," I said, looking sheepish as I slid my shoes off and let myself under the covers. "We don't know each other that well, right? I'll leave you alone."

I didn't want to tell him I thought he was more sensitive than I realized, or any possible phrasing of that sentence, but he seemed to have a lot of nerves to cross. I didn't know where the lines were. He didn't like talking about himself, that was all I could tell.

Maybe I would talk to Dante before working with Vergil again, I thought. I didn't want to sneak around behind Vergil's back, but I didn't get the feeling we were clicking very well. There were too many ways to make a mistake and upset him, and to be honest, I didn't think he needed my help to complete the job at all.

We'd succeeded in getting rid of the demon, but I was looking forward to getting in some solo work.


	5. Chapter 5

I tried not to dwell on my job with Vergil. He'd been kind enough to suffer the drive home with me, but that wasn't setting the bar very high.

After sleeping on it, I found myself more frustrated with how he handled the client, which really was that he hadn't handled the client at all. On top of that, I felt like we could have taken care of the creature a lot more efficiently if he had been taking it more seriously. He let me reap the benefits of making the killing blow myself, but it should have been an even easier assignment, with two of us.

The only consolation is that Dante had been pleased enough with the results to promise a call anytime he got work for me.

I had to keep telling myself that there was a point at which he probably could have killed it, but not without injuring me in the process. So it wasn't like he was doing nothing, but after going through my every complaint I could, I knew the real reason I was unhappy with how things went.

I was embarrassed, easy as that.

Vergil made it easy to find the subjects he didn't want to talk about, especially if you were as nosy as I was, but it was because I felt like I was being nosy that I thought I should have known better than to keep talking. Embarrassing.

I got another call from Dante, and while I was still on the line, I all but begged him not to put me out with his brother again. At least not until I recovered from the last time.

His laugh over the phone made me suspect that he thought Vergil might chase me off in the first place, and to my surprise he assured me that his brother only came in once or twice a month. Which meant he was going to send me on my own to take out some small-time targets-exactly as I had hoped.

So that became the pattern for a little while, taking easy jobs a couple of times a week. The only times I saw Vergil for about two months were in periods between coming and going. I tried to keep our brief interactions briefer, and said very little apart from a quiet greeting in passing.

When the time finally came for a more serious job, Dante called on me again.

"I don't want to go with Vergil," I said adamantly. "No offense, but I just don't know how to deal with him."

Dante put his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Say no more. I already called in a favor from a friend instead."

I tilted my head at that. I didn't think it would be that easy. "You're sending me out with someone else?"

He shrugged. "I had another job I was saving for Vergil, so like I said, I called in a favor. Just waiting for her to get here."

I briefly remembered the woman who convinced me to look for work in the first place. I think she knew about my contract already, which would make things easier on me even though I still couldn't communicate it to her. Mostly, I was thinking about the flash of her eyes, and her mischievous smile.

"You mean Trish?" I asked, finally placing her name.

He rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "Nah. Trish is too hard to get ahold of, but she always comes back. Trust me, you'll be able to tell when you see her."

I had become aware very quickly that neither Dante nor anyone else he knew seemed to own a cellphone. Which suited me just fine, because my own was just a prepaid brick that I recharged with a card I bought from a department store. The most advanced piece of tech I owned was a lime green ipad nano that was over 10 years old. It was already on its way out when I bought it used, but it could be a godsend when I needed it.

Still, I thought a bunch of freelancers could probably use an easier way to keep in touch.

While I was lost in thought, I barely noticed when the door opened and my partner for the day walked in.

She was only a little taller than me, and looked like she might be about the same age. Her dark hair was done in a long pixie cut, and there was a moment when she passed by me on the way to Dante's desk that I swore her eyes were two different colors, but I had been too distracted by the cute dimples that formed at the corners of her mouth when she gave me a slight smile to be sure of what color they were.

"Is this her?" she asked, stopping in front of Dante.

"Yep, this is Medea. I need two people for the job, but she and my brother aren't exactly getting along right now," he said, nodding to me.

"Can you blame her?" asked the woman, before offering her hand to me. "Just call me Lady-everyone does."

I glanced at her with uncertainty as we shared a firm handshake. I looked to Dante, then pointed to my neck, unable to say anything without revealing too much about myself for Celaeno's tastes.

A grin spread across Dante's face, a look I'd come to distrust.

"Just one thing, Lady," he called out as we were about to leave. "You should know something about her. She wouldn't tell you on her own, but she's got quite a secret."

Lady eyed me strangely, not seeing anything overly suspicious about me.

I wished Celaeno would ease up and let me tell the people I'd be working with what was going on with me. It would be so much more convenient than dancing around or outright lying about what I could do.

"And I was worried you might have been making normal friends, for once," she teased, a jab at him, not me.

He waved his hand as if shooing us out of the shop. "In your dreams. You know what? I'll just let you figure it out for yourself."

I stomped my foot like an impatient horse, now left without any means of communicating my skills to her.

"Why ruin the surprise?" she grinned back.

She then threw her arm around my shoulders, startling me, and steered me towards the door.

"I like her enthusiasm," said Celaeno. "Let's make her guess what our arrangement is."

I had to admit, I couldn't complain so far either. I'd gotten too used to Dante's boys club attitude. She seemed to have known him long enough to know not to put up with him.

Once we were outside, my eyes settled on the machine she'd left parked in front of the building. A sleek red sports car, with only two seats, undoubtedly vintage. My little sedan looked pretty sad parked next to it. How could she afford something like this, being self-employed?

"You like it?" she asked, nudging me towards it. "Dante told me you drive, but I just got this baby. I couldn't pass up a chance to show it off."

"He told you I have a car, but not what it is I do?" I asked.

She shrugged, letting herself into the driver's seat. "He can have a pretty selective memory. Don't worry about it, I'll figure you out soon enough."

I got into the passenger side, surprised by how pristine the interior was. It really was brand new, she probably hadn't had it for more than a couple of months.

"Let's see if I can guess what you do," she offered. "Will you tell me if I guess?"

Uh oh, probably not. "I'll try to."

"You'll try," she repeated, thinking. "Let's start easy-you're not a demon, right?"

"I'm not," I said. Like she said: easy.

"Good, good. I'm used to Dante's crowd by now, but it's nice to see another human around here," she said, laughing softly as we started down the road.

"So let's see… You're not armed, so you've definitely got something else going on," she said. "I knew of a guy who could summon three different demons to do his fighting for him, and I'm pretty sure he was human. Are you a summoner?"

I took a moment to consider her description, then shook my head. "No, but you're getting closer."

"Three demons?" mused Celaeno. "That's three separate contracts. Any human that can get three different demons to cooperate with them must have earned their respect. I'd like to know what the terms of those contracts are."

To be honest, knowing that, I kind of wanted to know too.

I gave Lady a slightly paraphrased version of what Celaeno had said.

"Hmm… I guess I don't know if there was a real contract or not. I didn't know a lot about him, and to be honest, I don't know as much about that side of dealing with devils as I probably should, but I think his situation was complicated," she said. "Besides, normally the demon gets the human's soul or something, right?"

"Something like that," I said. In my case, that was only half true, but I didn't have a very long history of promising my soul to demons, so I had no point of reference.

Lady through a few more guesses my way, each one surprisingly shy of the mark, before guessing dead on that I had some sort of contract myself.

Of course, Celaeno, having too much fun, only leered from the recesses of my mind. I was unable to tell the truth unless Lady saw me transform. And I couldn't waste energy just to be a conversation starter.

"How did you get started in this business?" I offered instead.

She just shrugged, the way everyone seemed to answer my questions. "My father murdered my mother to gain a demon's power, and after he was dead, I realized that there were too many people in the world like him for me to stop. That was a long time ago."

I nodded. "Justice and revenge are things I understand. My story is similar, but my revenge wasn't against anyone with any real power."

"You have any luck?" she asked.

Celaeno chuckled gleefully, relishing a memory of blood that I would rather forget, if I ever could.

"Yeah," I said, grimly. "It was easier than I thought it would be."

We continued talking idly throughout the drive, but for now, both of us seemed to have had our fill of heavy topics, to my relief.

This time was much more straightforward. Somewhere in the town over, there was a tunnel on a major road that was supposedly haunted. The rumors had existed for a long time, but suddenly people had started to disappear, mostly pedestrians. There shouldn't have been pedestrians in the tunnel in the first place, but once a rumor gets started, it's hard to stop people from tempting fate.

Apparently, the pay grade was pretty high; it seemed like the city itself had paid for the very best to prevent any more lives from being stolen. Part of the road had been closed off to prevent any more incidents, so we had to get clearance to enter. Once we abandoned Lady's car and delved into the tunnel, I certainly felt a difference in my surroundings.

It wasn't exactly hard to tell that something was living here, either. There was very little light, but with our flashlights I could see the walls were coated in something, and as we walked I could feel my boots sticking to the colorless substance on the pavement.

I curled my lips in disgust as a sickly sweet scent hit me, with distinct undertones of something rancid. It was like someone had tried to hide a bad smell with air freshener. Or put on perfume, instead of taking a bath. I would recognize the smell it was trying to disguise anywhere.

"There are a lot of bodies here," I said, covering my nose with my scarf.

"Yeah, no kidding," said Lady, wincing.

I pointed my light up at the ceiling to see even more of the webbing, with at least a dozen human-shaped lumps embedded in it like grotesque mummies. It was no wonder the smell was so strong.

"I guess there aren't a lot of people looking up while they're driving," said Lady, wrinkling her nose. "Disappearances… More like they didn't want to risk sending anyone to recover the bodies."

"That's why we're here to clear the path," I said, frowning. "I just hope someone does come to claim them."

As we walked forward, Lady pulled a gun from its holster in preparation, feet apart, with the gun pointed at the ground.

A weapons specialist, I'd realized when I watched her remove the biggest gun I'd ever seen in person from her trunk. I was unaccustomed to fighting beside another person in general, but someone who could fight from a distance might be easier than Vergil, who needed to be pretty close with his sword. I could manage either way, but I wasn't very skilled with my mostly decorative dagger, so long range was as safe a bet as I had.

The perfume was starting to make me feel lightheaded.

"Keep your eyes open," said Celaeno, sharply. "Use me, if you need to."

I probably would need to, but not until I found our enemy. Nothing would be worse than running out of energy when I needed it most, but our lights weren't bright enough to illuminate much of the area as we walked through the bridge. All we found was more web, and more bodies.

I heard something moving, finally a sign of life, but as the sound got closer, I really doubted it was coming from whatever demon had built its nest here.

"Someone's coming this way," said Lady, lowering her voice.

It sounded like someone sprinting directly towards us from the other side of the bridge, but the road dipped on either end of the tunnel, so I couldn't see the light on the other side to tell me who it was. As the figure finally moved into the range of our lights, I realized it was a kid, maybe highschool age, clutching something to his chest.

Lady unstanced herself, putting her gun back in its holster.

The kid gasped and panted, stopping just short of us, eyes wide as he laid eyes on Lady and how heavily armed she was.

"What the hell? Are you a cop?" he asked.

I peered closer at his arms and realized the item he was carrying was a brand new looking purse, with the store's tag still attached. Even the piece of plastic that set off the store's alarm if someone tried to steal it was still attached.

Lady looked at me through the corner of her eye. I heard shouting from the other end of the tunnel, but they weren't getting any closer.

"They'll drive the thief into Arachne's lair, but they're too cowardly to follow him themselves," whispered Celaeno.

"We're not cops," I said, trying to relax my posture. "This place is dangerous, you've got to get out of here."

The kid narrowed his eyes, but had calmed down. "Yeah? And no one will follow me here."

I thought I heard something in the tunnel again. The air was shifting.

"Something is coming," I said, on Celaeno's instruction.

"That's not important, if you don't get out of here you're going to get hurt," said Lady. She was definitely downplaying the seriousness of the situation.

The sound of something scuttling around from the other end of the tunnel was getting louder, and the kid turned to look for its source.

"If you drop the bag and leave that way," I started, pointing in the direction we had come from. "They might not be looking for you. Go, before you get in the way!"

My warning came too late, the kid didn't even have time to remain defiant before something huge and with too many legs rappelled from the ceiling. A massive spider's body seemed to fuse at what would ordinarily be the head to a human upper body. The upper body appeared too long and the sickly pale color of an undersea creature to really be human, but it mimicked one.

"Arachne?" I asked out loud, to Celaeno.

"That's what this creature is called," she answered. "They typically live in colonies, but this one seems to be on its own. That will change, if it reproduces. It's a good thing someone decided to do something about it. This one seems unusually strong for its kind, too."

Before the boy could even gasp, the demon grabbed him with its frontmost legs, snatching him into the air.

Lady shouted, pulling her gun out to take aim at the spider's human half.

It startled me more than I expected when she started firing, but she didn't miss a single shot. It didn't seem to make much of a difference to Arachne, who had begun swaddling the screaming boy in its web.

I called out a brief warning as I transformed, but I felt pretty helpless even in Celaeno's armor. I couldn't use any of my abilities that might put the kid at risk, but that left me with only my dagger, which wasn't especially useful as a real weapon.

My wings carried me to the side of the beast. I carved at the air, sending gusts of wind crashing into its abdomen and causing it to screech in pain at me as it retreated with its victim.

Looking down, I could see Lady gaping at me, but just for a moment, as she regained her bearings in time to fire three shots after it.

I could hear the terror in the boy's voice as it carried him, tucking him into a section of web in a patch that hadn't yet been cluttered with corpses. With the victim abandoned for the time being, it hurled itself towards me, the thing that had caused it the most pain.

I didn't quite make it out of the way in time, and its claws knocked against my wings, dragging spiny claws down my back as it tore me to the ground.

"Use heavier fire!" I called. "Don't worry about me!"

In Celaeno's form, I could afford to take a little damage. The armor was resilient, and much, much tougher than my own skin. I just hoped she didn't take that as permission to hit me on purpose.

Hearing my instruction as I scrambled away from the spider, she removed the rocket launcher from her back.

"Get back!" she instructed, firing into the beast's human torso.

Arachne reeled, the impact of the blast ripping right through its flesh, but it still wasn't down.

I tried again, filling the air with the smell of sulfur as charged electricity jolted through its body, and cut into its sides with wind once again. The smell was arguably an improvement.

It really wasn't a fan of the more precise motions of the wind blades that sliced away at its body, rearing up on its legs to charge.

Lady did something that surprised me, making a dash in its direction as it ran at her. She leapt into the air, clearing it entirely even as its human arms grasped at her feebly, and used the bayonet attached to the rocket launcher to graze its back, digging deep into its exoskeleton. The sticky sweet perfume smelled even stronger as something oozed from its back, a murky wine color that splattered against its humanlike flesh.

The demon's scream grew even louder. It was in rough shape as it struggled to remove Lady from its back on unsteady legs. She clung to the human torso, and I saw her launcher fall to the ground. It was only a second later as I saw her with her arm around its chest that I realized the bayonet had been removed, and she was using it now to slit the spider's throat, turning its cries into sickening gurgles.

She threw herself from its back as it writhed, collecting her gun on her way down. "Hit it again!"

I raised Celaeno's Gale, bringing down one last flurry of wind against the spider.

With another cry, it stumbled, taking a swipe at Lady that put a gash in the flesh of her lower leg, then it fell.

Lady sucked in through her teeth, gasping in pain as she clutched her leg.

"I'll get the kid," I said, taking flight to where the spider placed him in its web.

He didn't seem any less frightened; his shouting had died into whimpering, but it started up again when I approached him. I realized that my form probably didn't make him feel more comfortable with his situation. There weren't enough people who had seen me in Celaeno's armor for me to have experience with other people's reaction. All I needed was to get him down to safety.

"We're pretty high up," I said, as softly as I could. "I'm not going to hurt you. Let me get you down, then I'll cut you loose."

"Get away from me!" he whispered, eyes somehow growing even wider.

I sighed, but I couldn't relent until he was back on the ground where he belonged. I used my dagger to try and pull him free. The web came loose more easily anticipated, and so I carried him to the ground.

"You're alright now," I said. I tried to change back, releasing my seal and showing him my human form once again. "The spider is dead. Hold still."

Lady stood behind me as I tried to free him, putting her weapons away. Her calf was bandaged, but she seemed okay. "What's your name, kid?"

The boy looked like he was trying to steady his breathing, but I thought he understood that he wasn't in danger anymore.

"Ashton," he said quietly, his voice cracking as he trembled.

"Hey, Ashton," said Lady, watching as I removed the webs binding his arms to his sides. "We're gonna get you out of here."

"I can't," he said, shaking his head as I stepped back from him. "They're gonna be looking for me."

"Come with us," I offered. "We'll give you a lift wherever you need to go. Just leave that here."

He looked down at the bag in his hands, he hadn't let go of it for a second. It might be ruined, with the webbing stuck to it unlikely to be removed without a very good washing, but at least he could move again. He threw it to the ground, then stretched his arms out to test. I hadn't gotten all of the web, but he was free enough to walk.

"I don't think he'll fit in my car," said Lady, frowning. "I've only got two seats."

"He'll have to fit," I said, nodding. "Getting him out of here is more important."

Ashton stared at us with a slightly bewildered look. "I think I'm alright. Just get me home."

We hurried past the checkpoint outside, all but smuggling him through to Lady's car. It was a squeeze, but all three of us sort of fit in the car. I took the driver's seat to avoid straining Lady's messed up leg, and Lady and Ashton found their own arrangement, with him sitting partially in the middle of the car-definitely not street legal.

He gave me directions to drop him off in his neighborhood, and when he was gone he thanked us, but barely met my eyes as he ran off.

Lady took over the passenger seat again when he was gone. I had some mild bruising, but I hadn't really even noticed until now, when I could finally relax.

"Did you lie to me?" asked Lady, as we pulled away.

"About my power?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the road. "It's not really my choice. You got it on the last guess, I've got a contract with a demon named Celaeno, but she doesn't really like me to talk about it. Until someone sees me use her armor, I can't talk about it at all."

She scoffed, seeming almost impressed. Almost. "I guess I can't blame you, if you can't help it. I don't know a lot about contracts and stuff like that, but I know summoning a demon isn't easy. Or clean. What did you have to do to make that work?"

I pressed my lips into a line, recalling what she said about her father. I didn't know the details of her situation, but I could see where she would naturally draw comparisons. Unfortunately, those lines were drawn in blood. "Listen, I formed my contract out of desperation. I'd rather not go into detail, but I only used her power to get out of a bad situation. I'm not a murderer."

Lady sighed. "I don't know you. I don't have any reason to trust your word, but if it will kill you to talk about it, I'll take you at your word for now. But you've got to understand why I have a hard time believing you."

I did understand why she didn't trust me, but I also had my reasons for doing what I did.

"It wasn't anything like that," I said, hoping I sounded reassuring. "I promise. I was in a bad place… I don't want to be vague, I just don't like to talk about what happened to me. If I could tell you about my contract up front, I would have."

She didn't look very convinced, but she surrendered. "At the very least, I can tell you're not anything like him. I'll let it go for now."

"Thanks," I said, not feeling a lot better.

When we arrived back at Dante's shop, I got out of the driver's seat, passing her the keys back.

"Hey, just a heads up. If you want to know what's going on with Dante calling me in today," said Lady, putting her keys in one of her many pockets. "It's actually because Vergil asked not to work with you. I'm not his biggest fan and I'm not going to cover up for him."

"Oh. Did Dante tell you that?" I asked, glancing at the front door of the shop.

I didn't know what to think about that. I mean, I'd been avoiding him, but I didn't think he felt the same way.

"Yeah, he said so over the phone," she said, shrugging. "If you want to know more, I suggest you ask Dante about it, but I kind of doubt he really knows what goes on in his brother's head either. Take this as a show of good faith."

I rubbed my arm absently, then nodded to her. "Thanks for telling me, I guess. And thanks for your help today. I thought we made a pretty good team."

She held the door for me as we went inside to divvy up our fee.

I decided I would talk to Dante later, actually. I did have some questions for him, apart from what Lady had told me.

The pieces I'd started putting together the first night with Vergil were weighing too much on my mind.


	6. Chapter 6

It took me a few days to work up the nerve, but for once, I had an offer for Dante.

I showed up unfortunately unannounced after normal business hours and found Dante, sitting on his couch and fiddling with an old acoustic guitar. I didn't know he could play any instrument, but from the look of it, it had probably been awhile. His hands found the frets correctly, but unsteadily. After playing for a moment, he stopped to retune the guitar.

"Dante," I started, but he put his hand up to pause me.

I waited as he tuned each string, listening for the right sound. After he was done, he looked up at me. "What are you doing here this late?"

I sighed. "I had a couple of questions, that's all. I was wondering if you wanted to get drinks and just… talk for a little bit?"

He tilted his head at me, letting his hair fall into his face while he thought for a second. "Yeah, sure. I've got a small stash here, unless you wanted to go out and treat me yourself."

He stood up over me, placing his thumbs at the belt loops on either side of his jeans with a slightly goofy grin, his eyes resting on me with optimistic enthusiasm. I couldn't tell if he was coming onto me or not, but I wasn't really in the frame of mind to let him even imagine it.

"It's probably better if we talk privately," I said, smiling politely back at him. "But… I was just looking for a friendly drink."

His shoulders relaxed with a laugh, and I realized as he patted my shoulder that he had just been teasing me, to my embarrassment. Maybe I'd have to start avoiding him now too, I thought as I gave a nervous laugh in response.

Before I really had time to say anything though, he walked towards one of the rooms in the back of the office. "Have a seat. I'll get the good stuff."

I didn't know what he considered to be "the good stuff," but I went ahead and sat down on the couch anyway, near his guitar. I tempted fate and plucked a single one of the strings, the note unsatisfying to my ears because I didn't know how to play.

A few minutes later, Dante brought back a couple of glasses with ice, and an amber-gold bottle that was definitely some kind of whiskey. I wrinkled my nose a little, but was pleased to see from the label it was a sweet whiskey whose label promised spicy undertones. That I could handle.

"I'll just have a little," I said, waving my hand. "I don't drink that often, so it's probably not a good idea for me to have very much."

"Watch yourself," warned Celaeno. She had every reason to be wary, and I would take that into consideration, but I didn't plan on getting shitfaced anyway.

Apart from the fact that I'd had enough of heavy drinking in my early 20's, if my mind was hazy, I couldn't communicate very well with Celaeno. Breaking contact with her in that manner wasn't explicitly forbidden, but it was unwise, and just good sense not to drink myself sick.

"Yeah, yeah. You're not going to enjoy it if you don't take it slow anyway," he said, setting the guitar aside before pouring a glass for each of us.

I sipped at the golden liquid carefully around the ice, savoring it under my tongue for a few moments before swallowing. It burned all the way down, but in a familiar, pleasant way that made my belly and the tips of my fingers tingle.

"So you wanted to talk about something?" he asked, taking a bigger gulp of his drink than I probably would have liked.

"Yeah, I just, um…" I drummed my fingers on the coffee table as I leaned forward, shrugging a little. "Well, for one thing, Lady told me that Vergil asked not to see me , so there's that to start with. I thought you just called her in because I asked not to work with him ."

It felt childish, and I really just wanted to confirm it, but from the way he paused when I spoke, I could tell before he answered that it was true.

He sighed loudly. "It wasn't like it was a secret. Listen, my brother's got a pretty big head. Not that he told me what happened, but I can take a guess. You bruise his ego, and the walls come up even higher. I'm not saying you should coddle him, I'm just letting you know that he's pret-ty hard to get along with."

"Yeah, I think you've mentioned," I said, shrugging. "My feelings aren't hurt, you know. When we were out together, I asked him a few questions about himself, and he reacted pretty negatively to it, so I'm not really that surprised."

He laughed at that. "Yeah, that would do it."

I relayed a little more of that night to him as we worked at our drinks, telling him about my contract's seal as well.

"Did you just come here to ask me about my brother?" he asked, squeezing his eyes shut oddly at me.

"Oh, no. Not really," I said, pressing my lips together tightly, though Celaeno probably thought he was right. "There was something else, but he was the one who made me think of it."

I remembered the other thing that was bothering me that night.

"Um, I saw your ID that Vergil was carrying," I said, ignoring the fact that it was a fake. I wondered about the legitimacy of his business, if he was a 40-ish year old man with a fake ID. I wondered if a son of Sparda could even be legally registered in any system. "That's what made me think of this in the first place, but… I wanted to ask if you knew anything about that thing that happened last year, in Red Grave City?"

He swallowed his whiskey, still making a face when I'd finished asking my question. "Trust me, you're probably better off not knowing about any of that mess."

Whoa. Was he going to dodge me too?

"You think so?" I asked, leaning back against the couch. I turned to face him, holding my glass so that my arm was propped up in my lap, and I was propped up by my other arm. "I think I deserve to know a little more. You were there?"

He shrugged, not looking very happy as he tentatively gazed into his glass. "You know, I should charge you for this information."

"Take it out of my check, if it's not in the budget," I said, frowning. "Come on."

"Why don't you tell me something first?" he offered, motioning at me with his glass. "How'd you end up in a contract in the first place? I don't know that much about that stuff, but I know it takes a lot for a human to contact the demonic world at all."

"That's fair," I said, an expression of resignation on my face. "Yeah, I know more about it now than I did when it happened, but I didn't actually mean to contact anyone. Celaeno is linked to her dagger, Celaeno's Gale - that's why I can't go without it. Without the dagger, I can't even talk to her."

I set my glass back down, then leaned back again, tugging at a piece of my hair. "There weren't any rituals involved until after I first spoke to her. And even then, it probably isn't what you're thinking. Um, I know summonings are usually pretty gruesome, but… there wasn't a real sacrifice in the picture. She wants me to keep feeding her energy, and I need her."

"So you're more like partners?" he asked, tilting his chin forward as he scratched at his uneven stubble.

"Exactly," I said, nodding. That was a good way to put it. "We're pretty close now, since I've had her for a few years."

Celaeno also didn't like for me to say too much about her. I had to dial it back, before she got huffy. Whether I liked it or not, I was moving on.

"Um, but yeah," I finished. "That's about all there is to say about that. Now you go. You were at Red Grave, tell me about it."

"Oh, yeah," he said, frowning.

He took a long sip, then set his glass aside. "So… I used to live there. A long time ago, when we were really little. A lot of things happened, and our mother was killed on the order of a demon named Mundus, getting revenge on my old man or something. No one knew where Vergil was when the attack happened, so he got left on his own to fend for himself, and after that we pretty much went our separate ways."

"Oh." I hadn't been prepared for his answer to be that personal, since it didn't seem directly related to my question. I took my glass in both hands again, messing with it while I listened. It did explain everyone's uncomfortable response to my questions.

"That's what happened way back when," he said, running his hand through his hair to the back of his neck. "Things have been rough for both of us. Every time we've seen each other since then, we've been at each other's throats. We still duke it out once in a while, even with our current arrangement."

"So… what happened to the city last year had something to do with Mundus?" I asked, trying to connect the dots. I had heard the name more than once from Celaeno, but my knowledge was limited.

"Nah, nah. I took care of him years ago, no one's gonna hear from him for a long time," he said, looking at the wall ahead of us. "Everything that happened in Red Grave is because of Vergil. But that's not my story to tell."

I looked up at him again sharply. "Wasn't the entire town wiped out? I heard they were working on reconstruction, but there was so much damage done to the city, it's going to be a long time before things are normal there. Is he responsible for that?"

His expression grew a little darker. "You'll just have to ask him if you want the truth. I'll tell you this though: my brother is a dangerous man. He's not as wild as he used to be, but that doesn't change his past."

"You told me you wouldn't hire me until I took a job with him," I pointed out, but I wasn't really pushing him anymore. "Shouldn't you have warned me then?"

"Yeah, because… Well, for one thing, it's really only me he has it out for. And I didn't think you'd stick it out," he admitted. "I thought if you went to deal with a client with my brother, his personality would make you quit on your own."

"Unbelievable," I said, scowling. "I thought so!"

"Hey, relax. You made it through the night, so I kept my word," he said, surrendering. "You've been busy taking care of most of my customers, so I can't exactly complain. Let's call it a mean prank and leave it at that?"

I rolled my eyes a little.

Celaeno grumbled. "At least he admits we're useful."

I didn't really know what he meant, specifically. I know what I saw the first night we worked together, and really, anyone with a magic sword had the potential to be dangerous, but if that was all that qualified him then even I could constitute as "dangerous."

"Fine," I said, taking a moment to drink again. "Anyway… If he's dangerous, why do you let him work around here? You're not worried about it at all?"

Dante shrugged, and I wondered if he ever asked himself the same question. "I need to keep an eye on him, and he needs his space. This way works out best for both of us. It's a process."

I sat back again, nodding slightly.

At this point, I was only a bit tipsy, but I had a feeling I'd be spending a while longer here until I was going to be ready to drive again. My face felt warm, my fingers tingling, and I still had a bit left in my glass. I looked at Dante's glass, noticing that the ice in his glass was long gone, whereas mine was still hanging in there.

"I guess that's all I really wanted to know," I said, trying to temper out the newly awkward atmosphere. I still had questions, but I had already pressed my luck, and I could tell that was all I was going to be able to get out of him. I wasn't sure how to bring the regular flow of conversation back to normal.

Dante finished off his drink a little more quickly than I expected, then picked up the guitar again. He strummed at it absently, slipping back into whatever state he'd been in when I arrived with more ease than I could. "You gonna stay here for a little while, at least?"

"At least until it's safe for me to drive home," I said. "You wanna play some pool for a little while, or something? It'll be a bonding experience."

He chuckled, taking a little bit of the edge off my mind, then put the guitar safely in its stand in the corner with a satisfying noise of tinny strings. "Sure. Just don't ask me to bet anything on it."

I thought for a second I could hear Celaeno's distant voice scolding me for something. I knew I probably wasn't imagining that one, but I chose to ignore her anyway, for now.

Dante and I played a few rounds before my mind started to clear again, unfortunately no longer giving me an excuse to ignore her complaints. Our last game was played with me nursing a full glass of water, while old school classic rock played softly from the jukebox in the corner of the room.

Finally, I thanked him for the night, and made my way back home.

In my effort not to look like an insane person, I didn't like to talk to Celaeno in front of other people, especially not when she was chastising me. So I spared a few of my neighbors still enjoying their evening any insight into my life as I passed. She had calmed down by the time I reached my door. She wasn't really angry, just not happy with being ignored, which I couldn't blame her for.

"What do you think of everything Dante said?" I asked her, mumbling with my cheek flat against the pillow.

"I think you're gonna try to play someone's psychiatrist, if someone doesn't stop you," she complained. "Not everyone with problems is asking for your help."

"It's not like that," I said, scowling now. "But aren't you curious about Red Grave? If Vergil caused that… don't you think we should keep an eye on him?"

"I don't," she said. "I'm not strong enough to take on a son of Sparda, and you know it. Leave that to his family."

"Uh, yeah, I don't want to fight him," I snorted. "I'm not dumb enough to take on anyone stronger than me. I just feel like I'm missing something here."

I knew Celaeno disapproved of me being as nosy as I was, especially since I was playing with fire by getting involved. I thought she might be upset with me for giving away anymore information about her, but if she was, she was keeping it to herself. More likely, her advice was her way of trying to protect me.

I mulled over memories still too recent to forget just yet.

It was my sympathy that kept me tied to a bad relationship long after I should have gotten out, I knew. Nights we spent together were empty, even though I thought I wanted things to work out too. It never got better.

Celaeno knew about my involvement with him too well, so her concerns about her secrecy were about my relationships, not about my curiosity. I hadn't felt the tell-tale spark I felt when I first met that man in a long time, which made her assumptions about my feelings a little more frustrating than normal. The implication that I was romantically interested in someone just because I was concerned about them as a person was, at the very least, annoying.

But to be honest, I didn't want to think about any of that.

All I'd wanted since then was to submerge myself in my work for Celaeno, and Dante made it that much easier for me to accomplish that. The work was good for me; it kept my mind busy and the rent paid.

Now, as the cool night air blew in from one window left partially cracked open, I felt I had too much time to think. The changing season didn't offer any help or comfort, but after a struggle, I managed to shut my brain off.

My ex's face faded from my mind, as did my concerns of the day.

I rolled over to get some much needed sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

My seasonal depression started kicking in at the start of November, so as soon as I got a day to myself, I made an extra effort to stay in.

Celaeno, limited to her dagger and her host, didn't like me to stay in bed all day, so I busied myself with my own hobbies when I could. I could spend the day working on my journal, while the old TV set I'd found (like a lot of my furniture) in the garbage played quietly in the background. It was uncharacteristically humid outside due to rain coming in later in the day, and I was ready to settle in with a mug of hot chocolate, a guilty pleasure in the later months of the year.

Unfortunately, I had the bad luck to get a phone call nearly as soon as I sat down on the couch with my drink. I set my journal aside on the coffee table to answer the phone.

"Hey, it's Dante," came the voice of the usual suspect. "I know you're taking off today, but I need a favor."

"What do you mean 'a favor?'" I asked.

"Well… it's Vergil," he said, pausing.

I frowned. "Hey, if you need someone to look after your brother, shouldn't you do it yourself?"

"Yeah, I would, but I don't know that he needs 'looking after.' I sent him out a few days ago, like I said, but I haven't heard back from him yet," he said. "I expected him to take a little longer than normal with this one, 'cause this job is, uh, a little on the delicate side. If I show up and there's nothing wrong, it'll just piss him off."

I was already lined up to leave to meet one of Dante's contacts in the coming days, but from the sound of things it seemed like I was going to be stuck with Vergil again.

"You want me to check and see how much progress he's making without making him mad?" I blinked. "...Don't you think, if he's not interested in being anywhere near me, and he doesn't like humans, he'll probably just blow me off anyway?"

"Ehh, probably, but you should be able to figure out if he's on the right track even if he does," he said, more nonchalant than I cared for. "And if he is in trouble, you couldn't pay Lady to save his ass."

I thought he probably didn't need to be saved, and I had no clue what had happened between him and Lady. The more I learned about Vergil, the less I could really blame her though. I still didn't know to what extent Dante meant that he was dangerous, but if what he refused to tell me about Red Grave had anything to do with it, I was inclined to believe him.

Whatever the case might be, I was going to have to go find him.

Vergil had left for his assignment the day after Lady had taken care of the spider in the town over. It had been nearly five days since anyone had heard from him.

Which brought me back to my point that everyone at Devil May Cry needed to get their own phones.

When I told Dante this over the phone, he just laughed and told me where Vergil had gone to meet with his client.

I'd get him into the 21st century one day, but for now I found myself putting on more layers of clothing than I anticipated on my day off.

"Don't be nosy," said Celaeno.

"You're telling me," I grumbled as I hurried out the door.

"I don't want him asking questions in return," she said. "You know our arrangement. I want to keep my privacy."

I rolled my eyes just a little, but I didn't speak again until I was driving, to avoid attracting the eyes of my neighbors, who seemed to always be outside.

"I haven't told him too much-Dante probably knows more than him. All I want to know is what happened in Red Grave," I protested.

"Vergil is more interested in our contract than Dante is. Worse, he's curious," she answered.

Yeah, he was, that I knew. I would have to put my foot down if he did get too close. Those were the terms I had agreed to.

"Hey, hey, I'm doing my best," I said, trying to reassure her. "If he wants to know about me , I'm allowed to tell him. If he starts asking about us, I'll protect your privacy."

That seemed to relax her a little, as I felt some tension deep in my chest unclench. "I know you will. Thank you, Medea."

It was hard to explain Celaeno's anxieties, and so I always thought that the fact that I wasn't allowed to talk about it made that easy enough to avoid. There had never appeared to be any direct consequences to anyone finding it out. The best I understood it was as an irrational fear, but I respected her too much to find any fault with it. Working around it had never been a problem before, it was simply the way things were.

I also knew that I was not the first bearer of her armor and dagger, but as a result of her secretive nature, I knew very little about the ones before me. I wasn't exactly forbidden from talking about them, but the fact that they were all long dead made it impossible for me to compare notes with them.

If someone else ever found out that I trusted her when she told me that the other contract holders had lived out full lives, I imagined they would call me a fool, but it stood to reason that only one person could possess the dagger at a time. I had never been afraid of her.

After all, she had saved me.

On my quest to figure out what Vergil was up to, I hated that I couldn't just have the client's contact information. It was one thing to call a stranger and ask if they've seen your coworker, but it was another to show up in person. The client, who wasn't all that happy to see me, informed me that the job had indeed been finished to their satisfaction, and they hadn't seen Vergil since then. It was terribly awkward, but I was lucky that Vergil made quite an impression wherever he went.

I leaned against my car in frustration as I took my phone out of my coat pocket to call Dante.

"Hey… Vergil's client says he already finished up here," I said, once he picked up. "It sounds like he just wandered off."

"Greaaat." I heard a scratching noise on the other end of the phone while he thought. His silence told me he was more or less at a loss.

"Did you… check wherever he lives already?" I asked, wincing just a little.

Another long pause. "Uh… no. The Yamato lets him go pretty much wherever he wants, so even though he has a place in town, he's almost never there."

"Has he ever disappeared in the middle of a job like this before?"

"Once," he admitted with a sigh. "The job he'd taken then was expected to take a few days to finish, just like this one, so it took awhile for me to get suspicious. By the time I thought something might be up, he showed up on his own."

"...Do you want me to go check, since I'm already out?" I asked, a little more quietly. I still wasn't thrilled about the idea of interacting with him, so I hoped he wouldn't be home, or that Dante said no. But if not, I would do this as a favor.

He thought about it for a few moments, and I just waited, folding my arms to try and trap in some heat in the dropping temperature. I expected it to rain sometime soon.

"Yeah, if you're up to it. It's really my problem, but he really doesn't like me bothering him at home, and hey, if you're offering," he said, chuckling.

I didn't really understand the nature of their relationship, but from what he'd told me before, it was particularly strained. Maybe this was Dante's way of preserving that delicate nature, in his own way. I couldn't claim to be an expert on healthy relationships of any kind, but I didn't need much convincing to do something for someone who was asking for my help. At least, I thought that's what he was hinting at, anyway. I wasn't sure if I was reading too far into it.

I got back in my car, which was still comfortably warm from running it earlier, listening as Dante gave me directions. I didn't exactly know what to expect, as I started driving, but Dante assured me it was still in town. That was convenient; I figured someone with the power to open a portal that could take them anywhere they could ever want to go wouldn't necessarily need to live nearby.

As it turned out, Vergil lived basically on the other side of town from me. Dante had a couple spare rooms in the upstairs of his building, but predictably, Vergil had refused lodgings there in favor of getting his own place away from the shop.

The building he lived in looked less like an apartment building and more like it had been converted from some kind of office into an apartment. There were two floors, and two apartments. Maintenance was lacking. In the light that just barely made it through the clouds darkening the sky, it mostly just looked cold.

For some reason, the railing leading up to the steps of his apartment had been painted lime green and lavender, and neither shade of peeling paint matched the sunbaked red of the brick building it belonged to. I had to wonder what the inside looked like, if this is what the owners thought it should be like outside.

I walked up the concrete steps hesitantly, then knocked on the door.

There wasn't an answer. I looked towards the window nearby, but it wasn't quite close enough for me to see anything inside the room but a corner of the wall

Looking down, I realized that the door had a mail slot, probably leftover from its days as an office. It was tricky, but I pried it open to peer inside, to Celaeno's disapproval.

There wasn't any obvious evidence he really was there, but just barely, in the corner of the entryway, I could see his boots leaning against the wall. That was as good of a sign as I needed.

I knocked again, this time more forcefully.

"It's Medea," I called. "I just came to see if you're doing alright."

Well, Dante had sent me to check on him, but I sort of guessed if I said that he would never answer.

After a few long moments, I heard a noise from inside that was definitely the sound of someone standing up from a particularly plush piece of furniture. His footsteps were slow, and when he stopped in front of the door, he took a few moments to undo the locks before it finally opened.

I stood up quickly, realizing this meant he probably heard me messing with the mail slot too.

When the door opened, the chain was still blocking it from opening any further. He glared out at me, but his eyes were slightly unfocused, like he had just been asleep.

"Did I wake you up?" I asked, putting a hand to my cheek.

He shook his head slowly, then closed the door again.

I thought about being mad that he hadn't even spoken to me before shutting me out, but then I heard the sound of the chain being undone as well. The door swung open more widely this time. "Come in."

That surprised me more than anything, but I accepted without saying a word, merely nodding to him.

He closed and locked the door behind me, and I stopped to look around for a few moments. The layout of the building looked suspiciously like a clinic of some kind, but it looked like some of the walls had been knocked down to make more room.

I could see the entryway, and then the area that could have once been a waiting room… Further on, a hallway with a bathroom and a small kitchenette that was probably a break room at one point. The rooms themselves were big enough to live in, but they were crammed together pretty tightly. The fact that Vergil's decorating sense left a lot to be desired didn't help, only the barest of barebones furniture dressing the room.

He turned back to the living area - the waiting room - and took a seat on the couch that looked like it would swallow you whole if you sat on it, pulling a heavy blanket back around his body. He motioned for me to take a seat, but the only place for me to sit was beside him, so I didn't have many options.

"...Are you sick?" I asked, blinking at him as I took a seat.

"No," he said, shaking his head again. "I'm just feeling under the weather."

Speaking of which, it had finally started to rain. I could hear heavy drops splashing against the metal roof, slowly, just a sprinkle.

"It's dark in here," I observed. I probably should have been more polite, showing up uninvited, but the words were already out of my mouth.

"The power is out," he replied, neither apologetic nor offended.

That explained the chill in the air as well.

I let him sit in silence for a few minutes, but I wondered why he had invited me in. The air felt like resignation that I might as well be here, might as well be taking up room on his couch.

"Um… Dante said it's been a few days since he heard from you, so he sent me to check on your progress, but when I talked to the client, I realized you'd already finished the job," I said, a little hesitantly. "Have you just been here?"

"Yes and no. The client was being difficult, so the problem took longer than normal to solve, but for the last two days, I've been here," said Vergil, narrowing his eyes just a little. "Did you only come here because Dante asked you to?"

I shook my head. "Well… Dante said you might need help, but I didn't think so. I don't know if he really believed that either, when he sent me."

He hummed in reply, a frown set on his features. "Yes, I'm surprised he didn't kick in my door himself. If it will help, tell him I'll return with the money later."

"We've done what we came here to do," said Celaeno, proddingly.

I brushed her aside for the moment, trying to decide what to do. "I'm not only here for Dante. I offered to come see if you were home on my own."

I heard thunder rumbling in the distance outside, closer than expected for the first hints of a storm. I was too old to be afraid of storms anymore, but the sound did surprise me.

Despite his silence, he wasn't actually kicking me out of his house, I noticed. If he'd meant to, I couldn't imagine why he would have let me inside in the first place. I could tell his disposition was more closed off than the last time I'd really spoken to him, though.

"I'm sorry my accommodations aren't any better," he said, apparently moving past what I'd said. "The wind took the power out not too long ago, but I wasn't exactly expecting company either."

"Sorry," I murmured, unsure what I was still doing there. I thought he was still trying to avoid me. "You're sure you're not sick?"

"I'm not," he asserted. "You have a heightened immune system because of your contract? It's also nearly impossible for me to become sick."

That made sense. Demon physiology varied too much for me to claim to be an expert on it, and he was only half.

"So... what have you been up to here?" I asked.

Vergil sighed, lowering the blanket around his shoulders just a little. "Reflecting, mostly."

"Did something go wrong with the client?"

He shook his head just a little. "The drawback to working with my brother is that occasionally, clients call us to aid with jobs that would normally require an exorcist rather than an assassin. Sometimes we can handle it ourselves, other times there's nothing we can do that wouldn't hurt the victim in the process."

"Okay, vague, but you're talking about… possessions?" I asked, raising my eyebrows up at him.

He shuddered, but nodded. "Yes."

I wondered about the other time that Dante had mentioned when Vergil disappeared for a few days.

"Did it turn out okay? Is the victim alright?"

Vergil shrugged. "No one was seriously injured, but it's not something one recovers from easily. If they were only exposed for a short time, they'll be better off in the long run."

I tilted my head at him as I watched him, and after a few moments he turned his cold eyes to me oddly. I looked away from him quickly. I never got used to the way he looked at everything with such strong suspicion, but there was an unusual gleam to his eyes that didn't seem to leave even after our eyes met.

"What is it?" he asked.

I gestured to him with my hand. "You feel strongly about this. I mean… it's bad, of course, but I can tell it's really affecting you."

He sighed again, but gave no sign that he planned on replying. It looked like this was weighing on him more than I realized.

The cool air and the rain against the roof was making me feel tired, I realized, and something about the way he spoke made me feel unusually somber, even for the time of year.

"...Do you know of Mundus, once the king of the demonic realm?" he asked.

"Of course, but only the legends," I said, biting my lip. "Actually… Dante told me a little bit about what happened when you were kids already."

I felt him shift positions next to me, leaning back against the sofa deeply. "Did he? Did he also tell you that my own foolishness caused me to try to take on Mundus all by myself after the last time we really saw each other?" A bitterness entered his voice.

I paused. "No, he actually refused to tell me anything about you directly. He said it wasn't his business. ...Why did you do that?"

"The why isn't important," he said hastily. "But it resulted in not only my utter humiliation, but I was forced into his service as well. For far longer than the victim of the job I just finished."

"Possession?" I asked quietly.

"Not exactly, but effectively the same," he said, his voice filled with contempt. "There is nothing but the whispers of your captor, controlling your every thought and action. It's the worst kind of torture, seeing everything, but feeling nothing, lacking even enough control over your own body even to blink, or spare a single thought for yourself."

As he spoke, his breath turned to frost in the air. His hands were clenched around fistfuls of the blanket until his knuckles were white, and my heart bled for him when I saw that they were trembling.

"So you've been at home, recovering…" I said, leaning a little closer. "It sounds like you're lucky to still be here."

"Luck has nothing to do with it. I've survived all this time, clawing at anything that would give me back some control, but that won't give me back years spent enslaved by that demon," he said, shaking his head angrily. "And Mundus? It was Dante who managed to seal him away, something only our father himself had ever accomplished before him."

The temperature in the room was growing cold enough that even I could see my breath, and by now I knew for sure he was the source, not the lack of utilities.

"Even after I escaped his grasp, the effects of being under his control nearly killed me." The bitterness in his voice turned into a growl that certainly hadn't been there before.

I didn't know what to say to him, and his strange behavior was starting to unnerve me. I knew what it was like not to be in control of my life, but my experience was nothing like his. Confessing wouldn't fix things for him, and opening up might actually scare him away, or at the very least it would upset Celaeno. Still, I couldn't help but feel something… Maybe pity? I knew he would hate to hear that, but I wanted to help him, somehow.

Without even thinking, I placed my hand over one of his icy fists, hoping instead to ground him. To remind him where he was. I almost wanted to soothe his hand with my thumb, as I was used to doing in such a gesture, but I pushed that urge away with the memory of my ex. Back then, I had done it out of obligation, because that's what a good girlfriend did. In this case, it was the right thing to do, a non-romantic touch that I thought he needed, but it had just as much a chance of hurting the situation as helping.

He flinched, but didn't move straight away, focusing on evening his breathing instead. His disposition teetered back from the verge of the fit his own body seemed to be pitching against him, and for a while he simply went silent. After a few moments, some warmth returned to his fingers, providing my hand with some relief from his frigid touch.

All at once, the intensity of the air seemed to relax, and I heard him exhale deeply through his nose, as if he hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath. Even I didn't realize just how bad the pressure was, until it was relieved, and to me his presence seemed normal again. Human.

After a few minutes of silence, he pulled his hand away. I could no longer see his breath, and I wasn't certain, but it looked like some color had come back to his already pale complexion.

"I wish you hadn't seen this," he muttered, his voice hoarse, but back to normal. "But better you than Dante."

I gave him a small smile even though he was avoiding meeting my eyes. "I'm a fantastic listener. I won't breathe a word of this to anyone."

I agreed so readily that I almost forgot about Red Grave, and my own misgivings about showing tenderness to anyone.

Vergil scoffed. "You had better keep your word. If Dante hears of this, it's your head."

His weary eyes were locked on mine, and I realized that his lips were in the faintest semblance of a wry smile. That had been a joke, I realized.

"I thought I warned you not to get too close to him," said Celaeno.

As long as I kept my word, to both of them, it was alright.

"It will be fine," I assured him. I scooted back to the far side of the couch. "I'll just tell him that you flaked out on him and you'll bring the money next time?"

"Better yet," he started. He threw the blanket off again, revealing the long sleeved T-shirt underneath, then stood up to get to where his coat was hanging draped over a table. He reached into the inner pocket, and pulled out an envelope, which he handed to me. "Just take the money back with you."

I opened it up, realizing it was the customer's full fee, then counted out a portion of the bills to cover Vergil's cut, which I gave back to him.

I probably did need to get back soon, I realized as I stood up as well. If I was going to be gone for more than a few days, I sort of wanted to stay home and prepare for a while. Even though everyone, including myself, had warned me to avoid him, there was just something pitiful about his eyes only minutes earlier.

"I'm going to be gone for a few days after tomorrow, but I'll see you after I get back from Fortuna?" I offered, tilting my head at him as I inched towards the door.

He blinked for a moment, as if stunned, then sort of nodded and shrugged at the same time. "I'm sure you will."

I thought maybe Vergil felt confused about the situation, which was a better sign than an outright no. After spending a few minutes talking to him, I felt a lot more comfortable with his presence, even with Dante's warning. I hoped he meant it.

"Will you be alright?" I asked him, pausing in the entryway to look at him seriously. "If you need someone here, I can stay longer."

A small sort of cough sounded in his throat as he cleared it, and he shook his head. "No, I'm fine. And you need not worry about relaying any message to Dante on my behalf. Just give him the money."

What did he think I was worried about? I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, then turned back to the door.

It was starting to pour outside, but after the scene I'd made, I needed to eject myself from the situation. It was my conscience that wouldn't let me leave him alone, but I was taking a big risk by being here. I told myself on repeat that I shouldn't have touched him, but I didn't know what else to do. I didn't want him to get the wrong idea about my intentions.

I nodded to him, and when I left, he closed and locked the door behind me.

The rain had made the air outside a bit cooler, but in comparison to his living room, it was like feeling all the warmth return at once, more so than when he had regained control of his emotions. I thought about his hands, cold as death, and something inhuman that hadn't quite taken shape, but was equally a part of him.

As I let myself into my car, I expected Celaeno would let me know what she thought of my intentions as well.

I just couldn't shake off the anguish in his voice as he spoke. He had isolated himself to sort out his feelings, but I didn't think he would invite me in if he really wanted to be alone with those thoughts. He didn't seem to know himself why he'd invited me in.

I thought I might feel confused about it too.


	8. Chapter 8

Dante didn't have a lot to tell me about what I was going to be doing in Fortuna, but he said he was actually sending me out as a favor to his contact there, which I thought was interesting enough to be worth it already. It wasn't really much of a job, in that case. He asked if I wanted to go do this for him, and I said yes, even though the only thing I was being paid for was to cover my travel fees.

I knew a little about Fortuna. A few years ago, it was a quiet little place that had been mostly destroyed by an earthquake, but after that, the people still remaining there opened it up to the public. Now it was being treated like some forgotten trove of art; the buildings that were destroyed were being restored by artisans from the world over, and they'd made a good amount of progress.

Apparently, there were still some locals living there, which I hadn't really expected. With the dissolution of the local cult, and the serious damage done to the city, there were books written about it, memoirs from people who had been drawn into The Order of the Sword, or were raised in it. It made news for a little while, but with all that attention and travel money, it was just a tourist trap now.

The trip was shorter than expected, for its distance. Dante was sparing every expense on my trip too, so it was exactly as terrible of a trip as I expected. Of course, Fortuna was only partially inhabited, so after departing, I had to make my way across the water to the island as well.

When I arrived at the island's center of tourism, I didn't know who to expect. To be honest, Dante hadn't told me very much, but he repeatedly told me that someone would be there at the port to meet me.

There were too many people coming and going, enough that it bothered Celaeno enough to complain. I couldn't figure out how I was expected to find anyone in the crowd, as I hiked my rolling suitcase up over cobblestone streets.

It was at the point where I was starting to feel silly standing outside the tourism center, my face in my hands, that I spotted something that surprised me when I finally looked up.

I thought finding my escort would be difficult, since Dante hadn't told me much of anything, but it was easier than expected.

Parked at the curb was a huge van with the words "Devil May Cry" written in neon on the side. Beside it was a young girl dressed in a trendy pair of mustard-colored overalls and work boots. She leaned against the van without a care in the world, and it wasn't until a moment later that I realized she was holding a sign with my name on it.

"Are you Nico?" I asked, eager to get away from the crowd.

She must have been spaced out pretty hard, because when I said her name, she jumped.

"Huh?" Her eyes focused on me. "Oh! You're Medea? Dante tell you anything about me?"

I gave a small smile, but shook my head. "Just your name."

Dante liked to play a game with me where he gave me as little information as possible, then just let me figure it out on my own. Or he was just negligent. It was probably the latter, but I'd figured out he usually knew more than he let on, especially after our talk the other night.

I thought Nico might have looked a little disappointed, but she stuck her hand out to shake. "Oh well. I'm Nico, Nell Goldstein's grandbaby, mechanic, and a damn good arms smith to boot."

"Nell Goldstein?" I asked, starting to board the van. I was looking forward to not feeling like a sardine in the crowd, and being able to put down my bag.

"For the love of-" complained Nico, surprising me as I turned back to her. "Dante really didn't tell you anything, huh?"

I apologized to her quickly, but I knew it wasn't me she was upset with.

"Nevermind that, there'll be plenty of time for stories," she said, grinning at me.

She pulled something out of her pocket that, at first, I thought might have been an old flip phone, until I realized that's exactly what it was. She opened it, checked the time, then put it away again. "Oh yeah, better get going-forgot we're supposed to get out of here before the meter runs out."

She shooed me into the van, sliding the door open for me while she rushed to the driver's seat.

The van had a warm, surprisingly homey feeling on the inside, with a quilted leather couch, and even a shower. I wondered if she lived in the van or if this was for overnight trips, but it certainly looked lived in.

"Come on! Get buckled in, I wanna move this thing!" Nico called from the front, essentially bringing me back to life.

I pulled the sliding door shut behind me, then followed her to the shotgun seat.

"So what's your story? Dante said something about a contract?" she asked.

Her voice was calm, but in the same moment, she peeled out hard enough to make me cling to the handle above my window.

"You're the one who asked me to come out here, right? You'll see," I said, mustering a smile.

Nico liked to talk, I soon learned, and she liked to ask questions just as much as she liked to talk about herself. I managed to deflect the conversation from myself by asking her about herself and her profession.

It turned out that her grandmother had known Dante, and that was their main connection, but she didn't seem to know him personally very well. She had done some work for him before, but it was mostly done either through Lady, or through his nephew (because it was more convenient, she said).

I must have made a weird face when she mentioned his nephew, because she grinned at me again. "Didn't know he was an uncle, did you?"

That wasn't exactly it. "Actually, I knew his brother had a son, but…"

Nico rolled her eyes, her shoulders going tense as she gripped the wheel. "Nero's a lot more Dante's nephew than he is that man's son."

"That's kind of what I figured," I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck underneath my choker. "It's just that I didn't realize that his son was… an adult?"

Vergil seemed young for that, but really this just proved that I knew almost nothing about him.

"Yeah, y'know, as deadbeat dads go, at least I don't think he knew he even had a kid to run out on," she shrugged.

I glanced at her sideways, but before I could ask her what she meant, she slammed on the brakes.

The van screeched to a stop right next to the turning lane for a lone gas station on the left side of the road.

And then without flinching, she made a perfectly normal left turn into the station.

Everything was intact except my nerves, which I was pretty sure had flown out the window. I released my grip on the van door and the arm of my seat, unclenching muscles I didn't realize I'd even tensed in the first place. The understanding that she wouldn't have had time to slow down to make the turn if she didn't hit the breaks didn't stop me from shooting a petrified look at her.

"Keep your shirt on- I just didn't wanna miss the turn," she teased. "Gotta refuel before we get out of town. This station's the last one before we hit brush."

Where was she taking me, exactly?

For some reason, instead of asking her immediately. I let her carry on until we were out in the middle of nowhere and still driving.

After we left the refuel station, she lit a cigarette, something I wasn't particularly happy about. It made me feel old, mentally lamenting that this girl at least ten years younger than me was dealing with her own vices, but as long as she let the window open and the smoke out of my face, I wasn't going to preach to her. I doubted anything I could say to her was anything she hadn't heard before.

The sky was dimming already, even though it felt like I'd done nothing for most of the day. Without my car, I thought it would have been more efficient for Vergil to drop me off himself. There were two things that prevented that from happening: one being that I doubted that he wanted to be treated like anyone's personal taxi service. The other was that Dante still hadn't heard back from Vergil, which didn't surprise me at all.

When Nico started driving off the main road, something I didn't think the van was actually made for, was when I started having questions about what we were doing.

"So why are we stopping in the middle of nowhere?" I asked.

"We're going hunting," she said, showing me her smile again. "The tools of my trade don't just drop out of the sky."

I'd heard enough about her craft to figure out that she was talking about materials to turn into deadly weapons to be used against demons, but it sounded like she was pretty well established already. Without me. "Wait, why doesn't Nero help you then? He's Dante's contact here, isn't he?"

She waved her hand as the van came to a full stop, then put out her second cigarette. "Usually he does! But right now he and his sweetheart are taking some downtime. The work never stops, though - and you can't keep a Goldstein down when there's work to be done."

It was a reason as sound as any other.

"Besides… Dante was the one who asked me to see what I could do with your dagger," she added, hopping up out of the driver's seat. "He told me you don't use it much as a weapon. I figured I could take a look at it and see if I can't do something about that."

As she moved to the back of the van, she motioned for me to follow.

"She's not going to touch my dagger," huffed Celaeno, as I expected she might.

"That's probably not a good idea," I said, getting up behind her.

She started rummaging through the drawers in the back of the van.

"I mean… it's just a demonic relic, there's nothing that really needs to be done to it," I said, as she slowly turned to me. "I like it the way it is."

"If your girl won't let me get near the thing, it's not the end of the world," she said, clapping me on the shoulders with a laugh.

I felt my face warm up, since it seemed like she knew enough about me already.

Stupid harpy.

I smiled apologetically, but couldn't bring myself to say anything else at the risk of saying something silly. I had to admit, though, it was convenient that Dante had actually filled her in this time.

"Uh… what am I hunting?" I asked, looking over her shoulder skeptically.

"I'm glad you asked!" she chirped, pulling out a large attache case from beneath the counter of her crafting area. "You know about the Order, right?"

"As much as anyone not from here knows," I said, shrugging a little. "I've read about it, yeah."

She unlocked the latches on either side of the case, then leaned on it for a few seconds while she talked to me. "That makes this a little easier. This part's not exactly public knowledge, but there was some shady research going on deep inside the order, turning people into demons. The man in charge of it all was my daddy, so after some wheeling and dealing, I've got most of his research notes."

That stopped me for a second. "Your father was a researcher in the Order?"

"It's a long story, don't worry about it; never knew him and I never felt better than the day I found out he was dead," she said, so quickly I didn't even realize we were moving on as she stood up again.

"Anyway, a lot of the earlier experiments only used demons. Some of them involved hybridizing demons and local wildlife, but a lot of those had pretty gruesome results. Some of them, though, they set loose back into the wild."

"We're looking for these hybrids?" I asked, wincing at what my imagination conjured up in place of the details I'd been spared.

Nico shook her head. "A few of these hybrids got reintroduced back into the ecosystem. I think they were gonna keep an eye on the population and see what changed in a few years. Know what happened to them instead?" Here she paused to grin at me, but not long enough for me to answer. "Most of them were picked off by something even stronger. We're looking for the thing that took them all out."

I shook my head quickly as I processed this information, trying to make sure if I'd gotten it right in my head. I knew what it was we were about to do, but somehow I lost my train of thought. "So, wait… Your father was a researcher in the Order?"

Nico rolled her eyes, sighing loudly. "Alright, girlie, forget all of that. First thing, tonight we're just setting down some traps, see what bites. Tomorrow's when the real fun begins. You with me?"

"No, I hear you," I said, though I wasn't sure I did. "What are we doing this for again?"

"Let's get moving, talk while we work," she said, motioning to me as she leaned back to open the case.

I moved around to the door side of the crafting table to see what she was pointing at.

"I bet you've never dug a pitfall trap before, have you?" she asked.

I shook my head quickly. "I've never done anything like this."

"No worries there, cause this isn't gonna be anything like that," Nico laughed. "I'm gonna have to show ya how to use these things anyway - made 'em myself, so I'm the only one who knows how to use 'em."

I frowned just a little, but looked down at the contraptions in the case, finally. It was difficult to make out exactly what they were, but there were about six of them, a sort of rounded, oblong shape, bound tightly in a sort of mesh netting.

"What are they?" I asked, blinking.

"These are the traps," she said, gesturing with both hands vigorously. "It's like a tag and a stun gun at the same time. Now, I don't know how effective it will be at trapping our beastie, because I don't know how big it really is, but the second one of these is triggered, we'll be able to find it wherever it goes."

I felt myself pale just a little. "You made these? Have you… tested them before?"

She slapped her hand against the counter, making me jump. "Sure I have! They work just fine on little guys! We just don't know exactly what we're up against yet."

"Does this thing have a name?" I asked. "What are we looking for?"

She shrugged. "It's got a serial number - but according to my daddy's notes, it had only been seen a handful of times. There's nothing really useful about it, which is why I dunno exactly how big it is, but even if it's too big to be taken down by our traps, these'll still be enough to slow it down."

"By the way, once we put these down, make sure you stay clear of them," she added, her smile falling for just a second. "That's gonna be a real nasty surprise, in a best case scenario."

Celaeno seemed amused by the whole thing, now that no one was talking about taking apart her dagger.

There were six traps in total, and we used them to cover a fair amount of ground. I still wasn't completely sold on them, but it was only because I didn't know how to handle the equipment, and I really didn't want to find out exactly what would happen if I messed up.

Nico was relentless, and I was pretty sure she could sense my worry, but with her instruction, setting them for our target went pretty smoothly.

Afterwards, we returned to the van and pulled out the couch for the night.

"I've got some equipment I need to keep running, and you need your rest, so I can sleep in the cockpit if you want the bed to yourself," said Nico, lighting another cigarette.

"I'm fine sharing," I said, smiling politely as the smell of smoke hit me again. "Um… but do you think you can take that outside?"

She looked me up and down as if seeing me for the first time, then nodded her head with a sly little grin. "Yeah, yeah, I got you. I'll be right outside if you need me."

She excused herself from the van for several minutes, during which I kicked off my boots and cozied down into one side of the bed.

"You'd better not wander outside yourself," said Celaeno. "You never know what might be looking for my dagger."

"Wake up! I see you moving under there - we gotta get going!"

I blinked myself awake, groaning at the sound of Nico's voice from inside my cocoon. My hand reached under the pillow for my dagger.

"What's happening?" I asked, squinting out at her.

"A couple of the traps got set off!" she said in a tone that sounded a lot like she'd already said it once before but I hadn't heard it.

"She'll wake the dead, shouting like that," whispered Celaeno.

I almost envied the fact that she didn't need any sleep to survive. A little.

"Only one of them got set off by anything bigger than a stray cat, but I'm thinking that's our guy," she said, looking awfully proud of herself as she folded her arms.

By now I was sitting up, almost in a standing position, and all I could think about was how grateful I was that I'd gone to sleep in my clothes.

"Give me a minute to splash some water in my face and I'll be ready to go," I said, pulling my boots on.

Nico sighed and moved towards the driver's seat in a huff. "Better hurry up, that thing isn't gonna wait for you to make yourself pretty."

The stream from the showerhead wasn't very strong, since it was a shower inside a vehicle, but I only needed it for a second while I ran cold water over my hands. I smeared my clammy hands against my skin, not making myself feel much better about being awake.

As I brought my hands away from my face, I caught my reflection in the glass of the shower door. I laughed at how disheveled I looked, both from sleep and the act of wiping my face with wet hands. I tried to smudge away some of the eyeliner that I hadn't been able to remove entirely before falling asleep into a more agreeable shape.

"You look great," teased Celaeno.

As I mulled over the state of my roots, which were visibly much darker than the rest of my teal-colored hair, the whole room lurched forward. I stumbled against the shower stall with a yell that sounded a lot like I'd try to say two different words at the same time.

"I told you it couldn't wait!" called back Nico. "Get your ass up here if you don't wanna lose it!"

"Wouldn't want that, would you?" I whispered under my breath to Celaeno with a soft laugh as I tried to work my way to the front seat of the van by clinging to the walls and furniture.

I all but collapsed into the passenger seat beside her as we careened through the trees towards our target.

"Almost there," she said.

"I'm surprised you can recognize this place at night," I said, trying not to sound condescending.

"Don't have to worry about that!" chirped Nico. "Got this thing hooked up to a satellite; if that net moves, I'll know about it."

I felt a little out of my depth.

"Is it moving?" I asked.

"You bet your ass it is."

"Something big is coming up ahead," said Celaeno, interrupting my thoughts. "We're on the right track."

"Get ready!" shouted Nico, even though I was only a few feet away.

The van hit a bump, and I wasn't sure, but I swore we were airborne for a brief moment. As soon as I had that thought, Nico brought us to another screeching halt, turning the van just in time to avoid crashing into a barricade of trees. I didn't even have the time to think about that before my eyes settled on my target.

"There he is!" she shouted as I pried my door open.

The creature before me was thrashing about wildly in a grassy clearing of its own making, parting the trees ahead of us. It had a lupine form, and was nearly the size of the van, certainly longer than it. Its movements were more like a horse's than a dog's, with legs that were longer than they should have been. Its skin was just that - a flat, rubbery texture instead of fur, from its reptilian scowl to the end of its multi-barbed tail. It was still trying to free itself, Nico's net tangled around one of its legs, and it wasn't happy about anything trying to get near it.

As soon as I was free of the van, I felt as though my wings exploded out of the cramped space as I transformed. They unfurled in the wind I loved so much, glinting in the morning sun.

Its four jewel-toned eyes focused on me as I rose to meet it, and it snarled at me with a wild swipe of its long arms. It was by a narrow margin that I propelled myself forward with my wings to being grazed by its claws and knocked into the grass of the arena it had unintentionally created.

In the same motion, I twisted my body back around to cut the air in front of me, sending out razor thin blades of air that sliced at its shoulder in retaliation. Its howl of pain reverberated through the trees with a sound like three hounds crying out with one voice.

It was paying more attention now to me than its leg, which limped behind it even as it reared back to pounce at me, snapping at me with its gleaming fangs as I caught just enough air to evade its jaws.

I had to wrap this up quickly; when it hit the ground near the edge of the downed tree circle, I heard it yelp, again as if speaking with multiple voices, and it turned to lick its leg once before returning to snarling at me. Now it skirted the edge of the clearing, a clumsy, but nonetheless powerful gait as it circled me, weaving through the trees.

As it whipped past me, once, twice, on its third time, it diverted from me suddenly before it reached my turned back. I quickly turned in the air, and sent a few more blades after it, but they missed as it leaped up at the van, using its roof as a springboard to reach me.

Nico shouted as the van shook, earning a new ding to its surface. I called out after her, but with that distraction, I couldn't move fast enough out of its way as it made its dive towards me.

My wings splayed out underneath me in the grass as I tumbled to the ground. With its paws it pinned my shoulders to the ground, the impact knocked the air out of me thoroughly. I felt its growl in my bones, its breath against my skin . I used my talons to kick at its belly in vain, at a poor angle to do so, and I could barely muster the strength to fight off its jaws as it struggled against my arms with bared teeth.

Calling on Celaeno again, lightning sparked from my touch as I fought just to get it off of me.

The shock caused it to rear its head back and stop going for my throat, but not for long, and it didn't budge from its position, claws bearing down with crushing pressure almost too hard for Celaeno's armor to withstand.

I heard a gunshot, followed by a second shot, and it shrank back over my form with a howl.

With my shoulders freed, I reached my arms up, digging my own claws deep into its fleshy skin for a firm grip on the beast as my dagger arm swung, aiming directly for one of its four eyes.

As my blade connected with its eye, it took all my strength to cut into it, and as I worked at the handle of my knife, I delivered one more jolt of electricity to its damaged face.

The smell of its seared flesh stung my nose, but I could see that it was severely injured, blood oozing from its new wound as it stumbled away from me in a partially blinded haze of rage.

I looked up to see Nico standing just outside the van's side door with a handgun pointed at ground, and the demon's limp had become more pronounced, I realized as I watched it try to turn tail away from the clearing. I nodded to her before tearing off again towards it, this time on foot.

In Celaeno's armor, my gait was longer, and always strange, as her legs bent so differently from my own to accommodate for their avian shape. But the demon before me was injured, and slow, thanks to Nico.

As I was about to overtake it, I cut at the air one last time with more force charged than I thought I could ever muster. The resulting blades that sliced their way towards it struck deep, deep into its neck, severing it entirely. Its seizing body fell forwards against the forest floor with a dull thud.

"Damn, girl," said Nico, climbing back out of the van to admire my work. She placed her hands in her pockets, then strutted closer to me, eyeing Celaeno's not-especially-modest form up and down. "Nice, uh…" She indicated idly with her hand my entire torso area. "…moves."

I let the armor burn away, leaving me standing beside her in a bit of a daze. My body felt like it was made out of rubber, and I couldn't quite find the words to respond to her.

Fatigue taking its toll, my legs gave out from under me.

I could hear Nico calling out to me, but the last thing I remembered seeing was the canopy of trees blocking out the sky above me.


	9. Chapter 9

When my eyes opened again, I heard a lot of voices. The loudest was Nico's, in what sounded like she was calling someone else over. The voice I heard most clearly was Celaeno's. She spoke plainly, but I knew she was worried about me.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"I'm okay," I said hoarsely.

A new voice entered the spinning room that I knew didn't belong to Nico, but it wasn't my Celaeno either.

I lifted my head to try to find the source of the new voice, my blurry eyes settling on a familiar crop of white hair and eyes just closer to blue than silver.

When my vision cleared, I realized that this person was a stranger to me, despite the similarities I saw in his face.

"...Nero?" I asked, finding his name in my head at last.

"The Sparda boy," murmured Celaeno.

His square features pinched at his brows when I spoke. "Yeah, that's me."

I found myself suddenly distracted as I took in my surroundings. The faded blue walls, decorated with hanging floral arrangements, and the pullout sofa bed I was resting in, with its white linens. I didn't know this place.

"...Where am I?"

Nico spoke up. "After you took out that thing, you passed out, so I brought you to his place to rest up. You didn't even wake up when this guy flipped you over his shoulder and carried you inside like a caveman."

Nero's ears flushed a soft pink and he cast her a sharp glare. "Yeah, that didn't happen. Don't believe anything this one says."

"I'm just sayin', Medea, you slept just like a little baby the whole way here," she offered, laughing and shrugging like she couldn't help herself.

I glanced from her to Nero. No way was I going to be able to explain myself with him around. "I just wore myself out, I guess."

I'd never expended so much energy that I passed out before, to be fair.

"We've never taken on something like that before," said Celaeno. "You'd better thank that girl for saving you back there."

"I owe you," I said to Nico, who waved her hand passively in response.

As I slowly tried to sit up, I felt my back pop in a couple of places, to my relief as I was unaware that I even had any tension there. Thankfully, the worst of my injuries was that my body generally felt sore and tired.

"Is she awake?" asked yet another voice.

This time, I saw the figure that entered the living room. She was a small woman with a long auburn pixie cut, and kind eyes telling of a soul older than I'd ever seen in anyone so young. She looked to be about the same age as the other two, but she looked at me with a resolve neither of them possessed.

"Yeah, she's up," answered Nero, moving his shoulder so she could brush past him.

"You still look exhausted," she said, frowning as she got closer to me, leaning down to examine my face. "You've been asleep for a few hours, so I bet you must be hungry too."

I nodded. "Yeah, but I'll be fine. I'll figure something out."

Nero rolled his eyes just a little. "Trust me, we've got you covered."

"I'm about to start dinner, actually, so if you feel well enough to help out…" said the girl. "I'm Kyrie, by the way."

"Oh, right, sure," I said, nodding quickly. I swung my legs out over the bed, then stood up just a little unsteadily. "I'm Medea. Just give me a minute; I'll help wherever you need me."

The room thinned out a little bit, with Kyrie nodding to me before retreating back outside the room, followed by Nero. Nico started to leave, but then lingered in the doorway to look at me with a sort of sideways glance.

"Hey, I know you said not to mess with your dagger, so I kept it with you the whole time and didn't touch it," she said. "But… that exhaustion? It's 'cause of the contract, right? If you give me just like half an hour with it, I'll bet I could fix it up so it doesn't put as much strain on you."

That sounded nice, but it wasn't up to me.

Celaeno growled in response, a sound that went completely unheard by the person it was directed at.

"I'll think about it," I shrugged. "I appreciate the offer, but you guessed it - I'm not the one who has a problem with it."

I followed her into the kitchen, and it started to set in that I was occupying the same space as Vergil's son. The gravity of being in the room with Nero and his girlfriend was… surprisingly lax, actually. His presence, while Celaeno assured me was unusual in the respect that he had demonic blood, was fairly normal. He had every capacity to be intimidating, but as Kyrie gave him instructions to cut vegetables for dinner, he just seemed like a nice kid.

I saw mannerisms in him that were similar - the way his frown set while he was focused being the most noticeable. A few of his features were familiar, but apart from that they didn't seem all that alike. After he finished cutting vegetables, he and Nico evacuated the room entirely.

I felt less like I didn't need to make a good impression, but I didn't quite feel like I fit in with the little family thing they all had going on, being a stranger to the business' Fortuna branch.

"Dinner's ready!" called Kyrie, since Nero and Nico had evacuated once his part was done.

Nico, of course, told Nero and Kyrie what I'd done to the demon she'd been hunting, but I could really only smile politely as I ate and listened to the conversation. Celaeno's contract forbade me from answering most questions directed to me directly, as usual, but I answered what I could.

"Did you get what you needed from that thing, by the way?" I asked, setting my fork down to tilt my head over at Nico.

She blinked, then nodded proudly. "Sure did. I already made you my offer, but I think I already know the answer. All I'm gonna say is that what I picked up today would definitely help you out."

I rolled my shoulders in a small shrug. "I'd like to take you up on that, but…"

"What are we talking about?" asked Kyrie, glancing between us from across the table.

"Oh, right-" started Nico, laughing. She pointed with her fork at me. "You know how I told you about that contract? Yeah, it was 'cause of that she passed out in the first place. You won't hear her giving anyone the exact details, but she used up too much juice and wore herself out."

I gave another small shrug and a nod. "I've never passed out like that before."

"Sooo, I offered to do some work on her little dagger and see if I can tone down how much it drains her when she uses it, but her demon doesn't want me anywhere near the thing," she said, throwing her hands up in offense.

At this I went silent, but offered an apologetic look.

"So you can't talk about this demon, or won't?" asked Nero, pinching his eyebrows together once again.

I wiped my mouth with my napkin, frowning. I didn't think I was allowed to answer that one. Celaeno's silence didn't offer much either.

"Can't," confirmed Nico for me.

"So how'd you end up getting hired, then?" asked Nero. "Not that I'm, uh, doubting you or anything."

I waved my hand passively. "I started off as a client because I lost my dagger. Actually, Dante didn't want to touch my offer, so he passed it off to his brother."

Only once the words were out of my mouth did I realize that I hadn't even meant to bring him up, worried that Vergil's aversion to touchy subjects might have been hereditary somehow.

"And he took care of it?" he asked, a distant curiosity in his reply.

I was hesitant to even say his name before now, but there was almost no reaction to his mention at all.

"Yeah, I think I just managed to catch him, or I'd never have gotten it back," I said, giving a nervous smile.

He nodded just a little bit. "So, how's he holding up there?"

I glanced with my eyes very briefly at Nico beside me, who nodded eagerly in response. I didn't know how much of a filter she had, but I trusted her to know Nero's limits.

"I guess he's doing alright? It's kind of hard to tell," I said, thinking of the other day when I'd spoken to him. It was hard to say, since that was the first time I'd really spoken to him in months. "He's still coming and taking jobs for Dante, so I'd say that's probably something?"

He made a face that looked like that was about all he expected. "Yeah, you're probably not the one I should ask. Dante's pretty good at keeping track of him, so if I could ever get ahold of him, maybe…"

He rolled his wrist around a little as he trailed off, indicating that he probably wasn't going to finish.

After that, conversation returned to normal, so I could only guess that I'd done enough to satisfy him at that point.

It wasn't much, but I decided to help Kyrie deal with the dishes. We'd made a bit of a mess, and there were going to be a lot of leftovers, so this was the least I could do.

"Sorry dinner was a little late," she said, passing me a sponge. "I guess you probably didn't notice, but I know you were hungry. We let the kids eat first, so…"

"You've got kids?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at her as I scrubbed. No dishwasher. We were doing this the old-fashioned way, but I could tell she was used to it.

She laughed, a soft, pleasant sound. "They're family, but not by blood , if that's what you mean. After what happened a few years ago, we took in a few of the orphans that were displaced, since what's left of the Order of the Sword is in no position to take them back in..."

She seemed suddenly a bit saddened by talking about it, so I didn't press her on it any further.

"Still, that's pretty cool of you," I offered instead. "You like to help people."

"Another bleeding heart," said Celaeno.

Kyrie nodded. "We do what we can. Besides, Nero and I grew up in that same orphanage. The way things were, we could hardly abandoned them."

I paused to glance at her at that. "...Nero grew up in an orphanage?"

She looked back at me as she worked, nodding solemnly. She wasn't smiling, but there was no lack of friendliness in her eyes as she tucked a short piece of hair from her fringe behind her ear. "I know you mentioned it a while ago, but I almost forgot you already know about his father."

"I'm guessing there's a long story behind the whole family," I said softly, dismissively.

"You could say that. He's tried to make up for it, but…" she trailed off, wringing her right hand in an odd gesture. "Vergil has hurt him pretty badly. He almost killed him, at least once."

That did startle me. "He did?"

"The first time, we didn't know who he was," she said, bringing her hand back down to work at the dish dinner had been served in. "I don't think Vergil knew him either, but that doesn't fix what he did. Nero is a fast healer, but that was a bad scare that landed him in the hospital for a few weeks. If Nero were a normal human…"

"Sounds like he hurt him pretty bad," said Celaeno, clearly warning me away from Vergil.

I pursed my lips into a thin line. "Don't worry about filling me in, if it upsets you."

She shook her head, then messed with her hair again. "It's just complicated. Like I said, Vergil has tried to reach out to us a couple times, so at least he feels some remorse. I just wish he'd make a little more effort to reconnect."

"What does Nero think?" I asked.

"I think he's… cautiously optimistic, but this is new to all of us," she said. "Sometimes I wonder if maybe a demon doesn't understand how human lives work. But if he wants to earn a relationship with his son, he's going to have to learn."

"He's human too," I said, recalling the brief moments of vulnerability Vergil had accidentally shown me. "But you're right. If I understand everything, it sounds like he needs to learn to act like it."

"What's going on in here?" asked Nero, poking his head into the kitchen.

Kyrie perked up, though her mood hadn't been as dour as the topic suggested anyway. "It's nothing! Just girl talk."

Nero snorted, sauntering over to wrap his arms around her shoulders from behind with a mischievous look. "Bullshit, you two aren't exactly being quiet. Gossiping about me?"

She batted at his arm with soapy hands, grinning back. "You don't know? I thought you were listening in."

I smiled softly and turned my eyes away from them as I finished up my portion of the work. "It's not like you can scare me off by talking about it, I've already met him."

Nero's playful mood came down just a little as he looked over at me. "Then it sounds like he's probably doing alright after all. You make sure Dante gives me a call when you get back."

"I can't make any promises," I said, laughing. "But I'll see what I can do."

When we'd finished, Kyrie offered me the sofa bed for the night again, but I had a feeling I wasn't going to be getting a lot of sleep unless I could trick myself into being tired again.

Celaeno gave that strange sigh again, and I felt at once like she was about to confess something to me.

"My dagger… using it puts a lot of strain on your body," she said. "I really do want what's best for you, and not just because it benefits me."

My heart did a flip. "So I can get Nico to look at it?"

"Yes… as long as she doesn't do anything too inventive with it," she said, making herself very clear. "You have to stay with her the whole time."

I snorted to hide a laugh. "Nervous? That's not like you."

She chuckled too, a genuine one, which was a rare treat. "I am not. But you're the only one who can hear my voice. What if I need an interpreter?"

I rolled my eyes and started for the garage, where Nico was apparently pulling a late night.

She was going to be happy to see me.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN:** Content warning: vague abuse mentions at the end of this chapter, more to come in the next chapter.

* * *

After I returned from Fortuna, the month rolled around faster than I thought. Before I knew it, we were well into December.

Christmas wasn't an especially happy event for me, all things considered. I'd moved away from home at a young age, and had sat through too many of my ex's stuffy family gatherings. That meant a lot of pretending that my life with him was a happy one, and assuring his parents that marriage and grandkids were coming sooner or later, but not yet. That was all over, but enough was enough.

Dante's office was buzzing about the New Year's Eve party we were all planning together. I was going to be pitching in a bit of cash for refreshments, as well as offering services picking people up from the airport. Nico was going to get a rental, but I had offered to pick the three of them up myself, just so they'd get to see a friendly face.

But before I could even think of all of that, I was going to treat myself. Christmas was going to be my day just to stay in and sleep. No work, no workout routine, no journaling. Just me and my bed.

Celaeno didn't even complain when I told her my plan, respecting my little treat to myself out of honor for our agreement.

I didn't get the impression that everyone in Dante's crew was very big on the holidays in general, but when I finally rose from my bed in the mid afternoon, I got a call from the man himself.

Apparently, he was inviting everyone who was in the area to get drinks, a spur of the moment plan. I had resolved to stay in all day, but a sincere offer was enough to draw me out.

Unsurprisingly, I was the last to arrive, since I took the time to eat before I left my apartment.

It was Christmas day, and the main reason he had chosen this particular bar was because it was the only one in the area that was open, so it was by no means quiet. Despite that, the group had managed to get a table huddled up comfortably against the wall.

Sitting there already, in clockwise order, were Trish, Dante, a woman I didn't recognize, and Lady. One chair, the one beside Trish, was empty, and the last chair wasn't present - probably borrowed by the table over at some point, which had five seats, but only four people sitting around it.

When Dante turned to see me pushing through the people coming and going between the bar and their tables, the woman beside him ceased her heavily accented chatter and followed his gaze towards me.

She gazed at me through heavily lidded eyes as she brushed her deep red hair aside to get a better look at me. My heart almost skipped a beat as her misty hazel eyes met mine.

"Took you long enough!" said Dante, waggling his finger at me disapprovingly. "We already started without you."

I brushed him off with a roll of my eyes, but turned my attention to the stranger sitting next to him.

"I'm Medea," I said, offering my open palm to shake.

To my surprise, instead of shaking, she cupped my hand in hers as she turned it over, then planted a soft kiss against my knuckles.

I felt my face warm up as soon as I processed what was happening, and I yanked my hand away abruptly once she was done.

She gave a warm laugh, a mischievous but nonetheless delightful sound.

"My name is Lucia," she said, giving a small wave. In her other hand was a cocktail that I could only identify as being purple.

"She's not from around here," said Dante with a wink.

"Yeah, sorry, you just surprised me," I said, smiling apologetically.

"I take no offense," she purred. "It was intended to surprise."

A free spirit if ever there was one, I mused.

"Pull that chair over here and sit next to me," said Dante, looking distractedly at the door behind me before nodding to the empty space next to him.

I tilted my head at him, but complied without a problem. "Did you miss me all day or something?"

He laughed and shook his head. "You wish. Nah, just trust me on this."

Before I could say anything, Celaeno made a noise of warning, alerting me to the door on the far side of the room.

In this busy crowd, there was no way I could have noticed anything coming or going through the door. But Celaeno felt a change in pressure when the door opened, pausing just a moment at full swing for the one who was leaving to pass it to the person entering, then shut again once the door had changed hands.

No one else seemed to notice either. The only reason I turned to look was because Celaeno explicitly told me not to.

Standing in the crowd that seemed to part naturally to avoid him, was Vergil. He was dressed in his usual leather garb, albeit with a black button up shirt underneath his coat instead of the vest he wore whenever I saw him at work. His hair seemed to be styled a bit more neatly than normal too, but I couldn't be sure from a distance.

Since returning from Fortuna, I had seen him once or twice in that month and a half or so, but not much outside of work.

It seemed to be the same for everyone else, from the way Dante trailed off while speaking when he realized Vergil was approaching. A grin spread across his face as he turned. "Look who finally decided to stop being a shut-in. At least you're not the only one who can't keep appointments. Medea turned up just a few minutes before you."

Vergil froze up when Dante spoke, like he was debating whether or not to just disappear. Instead, he kept walking, and even pulled up the last chair next to Trish, borrowing it back from the table next to us. "I just saw you yesterday, Dante."

"Yeah, to pick up and turn in a job. That barely counts as getting out," he snorted. "Whatever. All that matters is that you're here now."

Dante seemed to be making an effort to restrain himself, something that surprised me.

Vergil, across from me now, made an odd expression in response, looking at him with suspicion.

I had been spared from witnessing the worst of their spats, but what I had heard told me that things tended to get nasty. I really didn't doubt the emphasis placed on how bad things could get between them. I was grateful for the extra effort from Dante, but I knew it was unusual.

I leaned back in my seat next to Dante and accidentally kicked Vergil in the shin. "Sorry, I didn't realize that was your leg," I said.

He waved his hand a bit, brushing it off. I knew I hadn't hurt him.

"How have you been?" I asked, leaning away from the group so we could hear each other.

"Better," he answered, looking at the table.

Dante stood up and announced that he was paying for the next round. The girls nudged their empty glasses aside, Lady requesting seconds on the drink she'd finished off already, while Lucia and Trish traded their orders.

He looked to me and Vergil. "You still like Hemingways, right?"

In response, Vergil only offered a grunt and a short nod. His eyes were fixed on the wall just left enough of Dante that you could tell he wasn't looking at him.

"Uh, I'll have something fruity," I said, trailing off. "Surprise me."

As he started to walk towards the bar, Celaeno gave me a gentle nudge not to overdo it tonight. "Make it a virgin!"

He threw a peace sign over his shoulder in response, so I assumed my request had been heard.

As soon as Dante was gone, Vergil leaned back towards me.

"How was Fortuna?" he asked. We never had a chance to have that conversation, I realized.

"It was interesting," I said, but I had a feeling that wasn't exactly what he was asking. "Nico used some of the parts she got from my target to soup up my dagger. It wasn't easy convincing you-know-who, but now I don't feel so tired when I take off the armor."

Vergil nodded. "Dante probably put her up to it. I mentioned your fatigue to him, and shortly after that, you told me you were leaving."

He had hesitated to mention the details of my visit to his apartment.

I blinked. "Oh, well thanks, then. I honestly didn't know it was possible to do what she does with devil arms."

He hummed, leaning back again as Dante returned. "Yes, she certainly has a talent."

I didn't think that began to speak to her skills in her craft, but I took the hint as drinks were distributed.

Suffice to say, I was pleased to see that Dante hadn't forgotten that I wasn't drinking tonight.

The beverage he brought back for me was a reddish eggplant color, and was garnished with a sprig of rosemary speared alongside a few cranberries. It was a seasonal specialty, that much I could tell, and when I tasted it, I was pretty sure it had ginger ale in it, and definitely some kind of fruit juice. Not a single hint of alcohol, in taste or smell.

I licked my lips appreciatively, then glanced to Vergil again, but he seemed to have lost himself in thought, so I decided not to disturb him.

"Oh - that table is packing up to leave," said Lady, pointing to the table me. "Hang on."

She jumped up to her feet, running over the table in question.

I craned my neck to see her talking with someone from the table, who handed a square blue box which she returned to us with in her hands.

"Trivial Pursuit," she announced, shoving aside empty glasses to set down in front of us. "All the good games have been taken since we got here."

Trish rolled her eyes. "You couldn't have picked a better one?"

"I'm down," said Dante. "You guys in?"

I shrugged a little, but I had to concede that with so many practical strangers at the table, it was an easy way to make conversation.

"I'll pass," said Vergil.

"Oh, come on," coaxed Trish. "We'll partner up. Me and Lady, Lucia and Dante, and you and Medea."

He clenched his jaw, glancing with his eyes from her to me. "I suppose it's better than isolating myself in silence at a crowded table."

"You can do better than that," said Dante, grinning lazily at him. "You're great at this nerd stuff, right, Verge?"

Vergil sighed heavily, then turned his full attention to me to tune Dante out. "My knowledge of pop culture is somewhat limited, so I'll defer those questions to you."

"Sounds like he's in," said Lady, chuckling.

"Everyone know how to play?" asked Dante.

All of us except Lucia nodded. "It's… a trivia game, that's about all I know."

"That's all you really need to know," he said, pointing a pair of finger guns at her. "Trust me, you're lucky to have me as a partner: I'm pretty good at this game myself."

The game itself was simple enough, so Lucia picked it up pretty quickly. Dante was definitely the best partner for her. It was anyone's guess what weird trivia he knew. His knowledge of a little bit of everything was enough to carry the orange team through the game, and Lucia answered whichever questions she knew the answers to, Arts and Geography being her specialty.

Trish and Lady's team, the green team, had the unfortunate luck of mostly Sports or Geography, somehow. While they answered those questions to the best of their ability, Trish was more suited to the Entertainment category, and Lady had a surprising catalogue of Science related trivia. If not for their luck, they would have been a force to be reckoned with.

Vergil and I, the pink team, made the best of it what we could.

He was much more well read than I realized, and he answered most of the academic-leaning categories with ease. I supplemented his knowledge with what I knew about pop culture. I was just glad that years of being stuck at home with the TV were paying off in the form of a board game.

We were neck and neck with Dante and Lucia, but in the end, Dante's impeccable luck won out.

In that time, I had finished off two glasses of the cranberry drink Dante brought me, and then I switched to something Dante said was called a pink elephant.

About halfway through that third drink, when the sting of defeat still pierced the air, I stood up to go use the restroom.

The room reeled, just a second too long to just be bloodrush. I let it slide in favor of finding the bathroom, but the feeling didn't subside even after I returned to the table.

I sat back down across from Vergil, grimacing.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his eyes falling to me.

"I think this has alcohol in it," I said, inspecting the creamy pink cocktail.

I felt Dante freeze up beside me. "Oh, shit."

"I forgot about that after the first one," he said, turning his attention to me.

Celaeno's voice was far away, but not inaudible.

"Get her some water," said Lucia, making a shooing motion to Dante with her hands.

I sighed. "It's alright, I'm just a bit tipsy."

That was true, but I was feeling a bit like I was entering a tunnel, the noise in the bar beginning to get to me at last.

"We've got to get you home," I could hear Celaeno saying.

"I can't get home like this," I replied, frowning.

"Leaving already?" asked Trish. "I guess we're all about to see each other in a few days anyway."

"I'd give you a ride home, but I'm not going anywhere until I ride this out either," said Lady, smiling sympathetically.

Dante returned to the table with a glass of water, which I sipped at just because he looked a lot like a kicked puppy. At the very least I could tell he was sorry.

"No need for all that," said Vergil, shaking his head. "I'll take her home."

I lifted my eyes from the table to look at him.

"Yeah?" asked Dante, snorting. "How are you gonna open a portal if you don't know where she lives?"

"I'm not opening a portal," sneered Vergil. "She did drive herself here, didn't she?"

Dante made a face. "Since when do you drive?"

"Well, I am unlicensed, but-"

I took my keys out of my coat pocket and tossed them to Vergil. "Vergil is going to drive me because he's only had one drink all night."

"See you all later," I said, nodding to the group. I had a hard time meeting Lucia's eyes, but I said goodbye to her as well.

I heard Celaeno teasing me for getting flustered by a demon, and I just stifled a laugh in response. The only humans at the table were me and Lady, and somehow it didn't exactly surprise me that she wasn't human either.

Vergil cast a smug look at his brother, who just shook his head and let us walk.

Really, I wasn't that far gone, but the transition from the crowded bar to outside was an instant relief. It hadn't bothered me too much when I was inside, but suddenly everything around me had gone quiet. The sense of relief I felt was even greater once I was buckled into the passenger seat of my car.

I watched as Vergil meticulously studied the interior of my car, adjusting the mirrors to his height as he went. Based on Dante's reaction, I didn't doubt it had probably been some time since he had sat behind the wheel of a car, but I trusted him to get me home in one piece, despite Celaeno's annoyance.

"Decided to buckle up tonight?" I teased.

He glanced down as my hand reached out to tweak the belt strapped across his chest, then shrugged. "If I am pulled over, I think it will look better than going without a seatbelt."

I scoffed. "Maybe they'll let you off for escorting a drunk home."

He put the key in the ignition and started pulling out of the parking space.

"But, um… thanks for doing this," I added, relaxing.

"I should have known Dante would mess up," he said, a certain amount of distaste entering his voice.

I rolled my eyes. "It's my fault for not realizing there was alcohol in the drinks sooner, I couldn't taste it at all. I'm not upset about it, either, it's just that Celaeno doesn't like me to drink very much."

"Does she have so much say over what you do?" he asked. "Which way?"

I pointed him in the right direction of my apartment, frowning. "It's not like that, it's just that I can't hear her very well when I'm drunk. It's like she's too far away to hear, but I can just barely make it out."

He gave a small noise as he pondered that. "What is she saying now?"

Clearing my throat, I looked out the window as I directed him to the next turn. "She's, uh. Telling me not to go home with you."

His thumb on the wheel twitched for a moment as he went silent. "Well, at least you can still hear her."

Celaeno ceased her complaints, instead fuming. She wasn't too upset, but I could tell she was going to be huffy for the rest of the night.

I guided Vergil to my apartment, and we made it there without incident.

Out of courtesy, I asked if he wanted to come in, but he declined politely, instead walking me upstairs to my apartment. I tried to tell him I didn't need that much help, but he insisted anyway. Not that I minded the company.

"My neighbors are gone for the holiday, I think," I said, glancing up at the unusually empty balcony seat.

Something popped into my head as we reached the top of the stairs, and I looked at Vergil seriously for a few seconds while we walked.

"Hey, you asked me earlier, about Fortuna," I said, a little slowly because I was afraid of chasing him off again. "While I was there, I, uh… I met-"

"You met Nero?" he asked, stopping in the hallway.

"Um, yeah," I said, tugging at my sleeve with one hand. "He asked me about you, a little bit. He didn't really say it, but I think he's concerned about you. I'm going to give you advice or anything, I'm just passing on what I saw."

His face was unreadable, but I could tell he was thinking pretty hard about something. "...Thank you for letting me know."

He did sound grateful, but he seemed uncertain of how to feel. It would probably take him some time to sort his feelings out, but it seemed like a little prodding didn't hurt.

"Don't get too trapped in your own head," I said, giving him a small smile. "If he's thinking about you, that's a good thing. I've been out of my parents' house for a while, so I don't have a lot of experience with family, but I know a little about people."

He took a moment to look into my eyes, a slow effort. "I suppose you must. Can I ask you something?"

I held my breath for just a moment when he asked, folding my hands together before I could exhale again. "Sure, go for it."

"The… contract that I was in, I suppose, was a bit unusual. My means of obtaining the contracts were unorthodox, compared to what is typical," he said. "You may understand humans, but I know enough about demons to know that your hands aren't without your share of blood."

I froze. I could feel red flags going up as he continued, but I didn't stop him from speaking. I had a feeling I knew what he would ask.

"What did you sacrifice?" he asked. "I know how your contract is sustained, but your companion couldn't have come without a blood price."

My eyes glanced down at the floor, then trailed in the direction of my apartment.

"I wouldn't call it a sacrifice," I said, trying not to think about it too hard. "I didn't lose anything of value; she did me a favor."

Vergil's eyes became slightly less harsh as his eyebrows went up. Apparently I struck a chord with him, but I wasn't sure which part caught his attention.

I cleared my throat. "I really don't want to talk about this, I'm sorry. It's not a happy story, and I don't think it'll benefit you to hear it."

His shoulders relaxed, and he gave a sigh. "It probably wouldn't."

"Lady asked me the same thing," I admitted, giving a questioning gesture for us to keep walking. "I didn't want to talk about it then, either, but…"

I pressed my lips together tightly as he started walking again. Was it fair, after that time he let me in on what he was going through? He hadn't exactly meant to, but I didn't think it was an equal trade.

"If you're curious, he was my ex," I said, stopping in front of my door. "I won't get into the details, but just trust me… it's better like this. Really, I got a better deal than Celaeno did. It was going to be a life or death situation for one of us… Someone had to make it out alive."

"Why shouldn't you have been the one to survive, right?" he offered sincerely, tilting his chin forward as he looked at the number beside my door. "You're right, I won't press you any further."

"Maybe I'll tell you more some other time," I suggested. I decided not to promise him, because he seemed to me like someone who would take a promise very seriously.

Vergil extended his arm to return my keys to my open palm. "I would like to hear the story from you, but I can take a hint. I won't ask you to tell it, if it brings you pain."

I swallowed, but nodded in agreement. I didn't believe that he expected to find a sensitive subject when he asked.

"Hey, don't worry about it," I said as I unlocked my door, knowing full well that I would worry, if our roles were reversed. "Just tell me I'll see you at the party."

"Unless something else comes up," he said, sounding a bit reluctant. "Yes, I'll be there."

I paused as I opened the front door, looking up at him. "Thanks again for driving me."

He dipped his head to me politely, a gesture that reminded me a lot of a contented cat. "Good night."

I crossed the doorway of my apartment. Before the door was shut, I heard the sound of him summoning his sword to his side, unsheathing the blade. Demonic energy emanated from the portal he had opened, and then after a few moments, it vanished completely.

I made my way to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

"He was quick to turn that on you when you got too nosy," said Celaeno, a sneer in her tone.

I rolled my eyes as I returned to the living room, sinking into the couch. "I really don't think he knew what he was getting into. I don't think he thought that far ahead before asking."

She scoffed. "What good does he think knowing about your past will do him?"

"It's not like I told him anything about our contract he didn't know anyway," I protested. "He's just curious about my contract - and the only thing I answered him with was personal. He even backed off when I mentioned Jay."

"Because he's only interested in us, not you," she said.

I felt my face get warm with anger as I set my glass on the coffee table. "Because he was trying to stay out of my business!"

I was afraid to raise my voice too much, so I turned the TV on. No one on my floor was home, but I was suddenly feeling paranoid about thin walls.

"Then maybe you should take a few pages from his book and stay out of his," she said, thoroughly irritated now.

"I'm not even going out of my way to bother him," I complained, curling my hands into tight balls that gripped the couch cover. "His son obviously wants his attention, so I passed the message on. The only reason it looks like I'm caught in the middle of a family drama is because I work with them."

Celaeno didn't respond for a few minutes. I almost wished she had a physical form; arguing with a voice in my head when I couldn't read her body language was frustrating, even though I could feel her emotions radiating within me. She was just taking a long time to think.

"I just don't like the way you look at him," she said finally. "You have a soft spot for people with sob stories. To a fault. Isn't that how Jay got to you?"

I stopped, looking down at my hands. Jay was a bright kid, with a promising future. He had a well-off family and a decent job. He was good at keeping appearances, but had a lot going on at home. He had a lot of issues to work out, and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't even now feel some sympathy for his difficult family life. More importantly, he had hurt me, and I didn't appreciate Celaeno using it as leverage against me for interacting with my coworkers.

I didn't think the best way to heal from hurting myself to help others was to shut off my ability to empathize entirely.

"I don't know," I said, sighing. "I'm not going to do this right now. I'm going to go to bed. I think you're reading too far into this whole situation."

Celaeno relaxed just a little. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get out of line. I'll let you rest."

I wouldn't tell her that she hadn't upset me, but I believed her when she told me she didn't want to hurt me. Our agreement was meant to be a healthy one, and she knew that only I currently had the power to end it early, if I was unhappy. Even if she wanted to hurt me, it wasn't in her best interest right now. Logic followed that even she could make mistakes.

That said, I was sleepy from the alcohol and unpleasant conversation had worn me out. After I finished my water, I went directly to bed, sick to my stomach over the whole thing.


	11. Chapter 11

On December 30th, I picked up Nico, Nero, and Kyrie from the airport, then dropped them off at the car rental place and set them loose on the city. There wasn't a lot of time for catching up, but they were staying for the week, so I promised myself I would catch Nico either at the party or some time during their stay.

Even though the party was intentionally low effort, there was a long list of groceries to be purchased. Decorations were minimal, but we were more concerned with keeping the snack table and bar stocked for the evening. The only thing that seemed to be planned in advance was the news I heard from Dante: we were renting a karaoke machine for the evening.

I didn't consider myself much of a singer, but it sounded like it was going to be a pretty good night in.

When the time came to get ready for the party the following evening, my biggest difficulty was in choosing what to wear. It shouldn't have been a tough call, considering that I only had one really nice dress in my closet.

"That will turn some heads," said Celaeno, signalling that I'd lingered on it for a little too long.

It would. It was a skintight, true blue material that had a subtle shimmer to it. It came down to just above the knee, and wasn't too revealing, but it hung low off the shoulders, sleeves ending in a mermaid tail flare at the elbow, and the chest had a v-shaped tag cut out of it that Jay had been particularly fond of.

Yeah, it would do. It would have been a better idea to go out and buy a new dress, but I just hadn't gotten around to it, for whatever reason, and I never had an excuse to dress up anyway. No point in spending money on a dress I'd only wear once.

The air outside was frigid at best, so I put a shawl on, just for going between my car and the party. I liked how the mark of Celaeno's wings around my neck looked with the dress, so I decided to forego any jewelry - something I hoped would dress the outfit down in case I was wrong about the dress code (if there even was one), too.

When I arrived, the guests were trickling in. Trish, Lucia, and Vergil had already arrived. There was a strange motorcycle parked outside that I only assumed belonged to one of the two women since Vergil, as I knew, had no business driving. I briefly wondered how he got around town to places he didn't know, and tried not to imagine him on public transport.

Dante was messing with the wiring and the screen display for the karaoke machine, while Vergil was nose deep in its manual, frowning deeply as he scanned its pages. Both of them had cleaned up pretty well for the party, so I didn't feel too overdressed, between Vergil's black button-down shirt and Dante's vest-over-a-turtleneck combo.

"Those wires are mixed up," he said, pulling the instructions away from his face to point where Dante was working.

Dante looked up at him to see what he was pointing at, then gave a good-natured sigh. "Yeah, I did the same thing last year," he said, pulling the plugs out by the cords, an action that made Vergil cringe.

"Last year, no one noticed until you got the microphones working and nearly blew out everyone's eardrums with the resulting feedback," said Vergil, scoffing.

"Well, if I remember right, you went home like half an hour later anyway. It was a pretty short night for you," he chuckled. "That's what happens when you don't test the mics first."

Vergil ignored the first comment. "Which is why I refuse to let you handle this responsibility alone."

"Yeah, yeah, at least that stick up your ass means you've got an eye for detail," said Dante. He glanced over at me, still standing next to the door. "Buuut I think I can handle it from here."

Vergil followed his gaze to me, then turned back to him with a sneer. "I'm not going to leave you alone with this until I know it's finished."

"Damn, and I thought getting rid of you would be easier."

I heard Vergil quip back, but I decided to leave them to it.

"What a mess," muttered Celaeno.

Instead, I went to where the girls were standing, by the snack table.

I suspected that Trish and Lucia were meant to be working on the spread, but they had stopped halfway through, and now they were just chatting.

Trish was dressed in a short strapless dress, made of a satiny black material that cinched in neat folds all the way down the sides. I wouldn't have taken much notice of her legs, but she was wearing a pair of glittery tights that caught the dim light when she shifted her weight to laugh at a beat in the conversation. Lucia glanced at me briefly, and I had to pretend not to take notice of the dark sheer dress she wore, covered with gold accents that made up the substance of the dress' top half, but turned into a slip farther down at the waist. A white shawl fell around her shoulders. It seemed we'd had the same idea about the cold weather.

When I scanned the room, I saw that Dante's desk had been shoved against one of the walls and was now serving as a makeshift cocktail bar, but there was no sign of the punch bowl we had bought the day before. We had opted for a non-alcoholic punch, since Nero informed us that Kyrie doesn't drink, but it wasn't there or on the table with the rest of the food.

"Where's the punch?" I asked, tilting my head.

Lucia gave a sweet smile. "Dropped and broken by yours truly."

"We sent Lady to find a replacement," said Trish. "The bowl wasn't exactly empty when it fell."

I looked around at the floor and realized that yes, in fact, it was still a little sticky. It looked like they'd already cleaned up most of the spill, though.

"Apologies cherie. "

I snorted a soft laugh. "Don't worry about me, Lady is the one you made pay for a new one."

The door swung open, letting in a chilly gust of air that signaled in Lady's return.

She was carrying the new punch bowl in one hand, and a bag with new ingredients in the other. She set the groceries down briefly to throw aside a heavy white coat, revealing the short ombre black and white dress underneath.

"Don't worry, the rest of the glassware is fully intact," said Lucia, showing her palms in a symbol of blamelessness.

With a grin, Lady strode over to the foldout table to set the punch bowl in an empty space between a veggie tray and a bag of chips.

"Let's use the leftovers from the first batch," she said.

I helped Lady out by taking the bag of ingredients to the fridge, swapping them for their half empty counterparts.

Finally, we were just about finished getting everything set up. The spread was finished, a couple of dishes being warmed by trays with little candles burning under them. Typical party food, nothing of real substance except bread and dessert, which was also mostly some form of bread.

I ladled out a cup of punch for myself.

Vergil came away from Dante, rubbing his temples, leaving him to make finishing adjustments while soft rock played over the speakers in the background. He was moving towards our improvised bar.

I felt my breath hitch when I saw he was free at last.

"What are you making?" I asked, walking forward to watch his work.

"Just a martini," he replied, his hand hovering across the desktop as he searched its surface.

"Where are the olives?" he asked, pausing.

"I don't think we bought any," I said, unhelpfully. "Do you… eat the martini olives?"

"Sometimes."

I leaned across the desk for a moment to reach for a bottle of rum.

"You're drinking tonight?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Special occasion," I said, a wry smile.

He wrinkled his nose at me as I poured the rum into my already nearly full glass of punch. "Are you sure you don't want something a little more… palatable?"

"Are you offering to make a drink for me?" I asked, smiling as I took a sip of the concoction.

He gestured to his own glass. "I don't drink very much or very often, but I know a little about mixing drinks."

I could respect that. "How about I hold onto this one, and you can surprise me?" I asked, holding my glass to my lips for emphasis.

He rolled his eyes, but got to work while I sipped at my mixture of citrus and something vaguely tangy.

"Do you prefer something dry or sweet?" he asked, hesitating for a moment as he reached for the bottle that I had poured into my drink.

"Sweet, please," I grinned.

He nodded his head, then started pouring bottles together, measuring them out carefully in the mixing cup.

I took the time to watch him instead of his hands, since I wasn't really opposed to anything that I saw on the bar. I realized I'd never really seen him dress up before, even when he'd shown up on Christmas, the only thing different to his casual wear was a button down shirt. The shirt, which I admittedly couldn't discern if it was black or a very dark navy in the room's dim light, was now worn alone, without the coat he'd discarded at the door. But perhaps it wasn't the same shirt after all, I realized, catching a bit of a sheen to the material when he turned his back to me to reach for another bottle. Leather pants had been traded in for pleated slacks that made his slender legs appear even moreso.

As I caught myself thinking that he wasn't half bad looking, I had to pull myself away just as he finished shaking the mixture, then at last poured the resulting beverage into an empty glass.

"What is this?" I asked as he handed it to me.

"It's a different kind of martini… I don't remember the name," he said, though I wasn't sure I believed him when his eyes sort of stared past me. "There's grenadine in it, so it may be too sweet. I apologize for the lack of a cherry on top."

I turned the glass in my hands for a moment, then took a sip.

Before I could tell him what I thought, a solid tone of feedback squealed out from the speaker system at the same time as the front door opened.

Dante called out an apology as the figures in the doorway cringed away from the sound just as he put a stop to it.

In the doorway was Nico, and behind her were Nero and Kyrie, side by side but only just brushing arms until he took her coat. Kyrie carried a covered container in her hands and made a beeline for the snack table.

I swore I felt the air next to me drop in temperature by a couple of degrees, and I sort of doubted it was just from the door opening.

"If he's going to pitch a fit, he could at least hold your drink and cool it off while he's at it," said Celaeno.

I moved to the table to help make room for the dish Kyrie brought with her.

As soon as the dish was on the table, she greeted me with a warm hug. I cringed just a little, but I knew better than to pull away from her sooner than was polite.

"Sorry we're late," she said, smiling as she stepped back from me. "I made deviled eggs, but I waited just a little too long to get started, so it took longer than I thought…"

I uncovered the dish, and sure enough, there was a tray inside made up of rows of deviled eggs. I heard Celaeno chuckle, and could only assume she was laughing at the idea of bringing deviled eggs to a gathering of demons, since I was trying not to smile too much at it as well.

"I don't think anyone minds, as long as you're here," I offered, looking back at her. "I don't think anyone planned on this being that fancy of an event."

"Right? I'm a little surprised that everything came together so well, without it being very organized," she said. "We weren't sure if we were going to be overdressed or not, either, so I'm glad it looks like everyone else came like this too."

I took that as an opportunity to look at her dress, which was a matte offwhite fabric that came down to just above her knees. The sleeves came down to her elbows, and were a little too thin for the weather we were having. Gold flowers bloomed across the torso and part of the skirt, decoration rather than necessity.

I had to agree, having been part of the planning process. "I think Dante put a lot of this together at the last minute, except for the karaoke machine. I know he had that lined up in advance. But if it makes you feel better, he's still working on setting it up."

She laughed as I nodded over to where Dante was still frowning and holding a mic in one hand.

I felt someone moving around behind me, so I turned to move out of their way, when I realized it was Nico, helping herself to the food.

"Hey, girlie," she grinned, taking a carrot stick from the otherwise neglected veggie tray.

"Hey, Nico," I answered, though I felt a little silly when she talked to me like that. "I just wanted to thank you for whatever you did to Celaeno's Gale for me."

"Don't thank me; Dante knows I don't work for free," she said, laughing. "How are those upgrades treating you? I bet you're feeling better now."

I took a deep sip of the drink Vergil made for me. "It's been a godsend, honestly. I don't usually go against bigger targets that need me to use up that much energy, but ever since then, even after taking care of the weaker ones that are normal around here, I haven't felt tired at all."

"You might still feel it a little if you push yourself that hard again, but it won't be anything like before," she said, nodding.

"I'll let you know how it goes the next time I hunt another giant reptilian dog," I smiled back at her, finding her confidence encouraging. "I think Celaeno appreciates that it's easier on me, so thanks from her too."

"I guess I'll have to take that, since this is as close to hearing it from her that I'll ever get, huh?" she asked, laughing.

Just then, there was a triumphant yell from Dante from the front of the room. There was an electronic hum as the mic clicked on, followed by a few taps against the mic's cover.

"Looks like everyone is here," he said, looking out at us.

"Okay, people - same deal as last year. Queue up your songs on the computer and we'll call names all night long," said Dante. "I'll get us kicked off, and if you have any questions about the karaoke system you can just ask Vergil. You've read the manual close enough to be an expert now, right?"

I tried not to let my eyes wander in Vergil's direction as everyone turned to look to where the older twin was facing the crowd from against the far wall, sipping his drink and staring directly at the ceiling ahead of him with folded arms.

I sort of felt bad for him.

Dante leaned over the computer for a second to hit a button, starting the music and taking a little tension out of the scene. As the heavy guitar riffed through the air, he tapped his foot in time to the music.

His voice wasn't half bad, but I could tell that the important part to him was his performance. What was more surprising was the way he channeled his energy, showing off more than singing; how had he managed to contain that energy until now?

By the time he was finished, he had traversed the room's area designated as a "stage" twice, and Lucia was already at the computer, picking out a song.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nero approaching his father.

I decided not to be nosy for once and instead focused on the nearly empty glass in my hand.

As soon as Lucia stepped away from the computer, I realized I should have been thinking of something too. I really wasn't much of a singer, but being unskilled at karaoke made it more fun, in my opinion.

I helped myself to the cocktail bar again, this time trying to replicate the drink Vergil had made. I frowned as I read the labels on the bottles. There had been coconut rum, and definitely grenadine. Was that all? No, something was missing.

I had already poured it into my glass when I remembered he'd put it in the shaker. Carefully, I poured it back out into the mixer, shaking it. It didn't mix to the same texture as when he'd done it, but I poured it back into my glass anyway.

It was… pretty bad. What else was missing? Pineapple juice? I tried a little of that, but gave up and poured a bit of punch into the mix as well, just to take some of the sting out of it. I had been too distracted when he was making the drink to notice what all had gone into it.

Was I distracted by him? I blinked, glancing to where Nero and Vergil were still talking.

"Medea!" said Dante, even though Lucia had just started singing. (A ballad, in a language that I thought might have been Portuguese.)

I turned my head to see him walking towards me and took another sip of the swill in my glass.

"Nice ink," he said, pointing at my neck.

The mark was so natural to me that I forgot it was unusual to others. And somehow I had forgotten that it was visible in its entirety tonight, no collar or necklace to hide it. All of that meant it took me a minute before I understood.

"You've seen this before, haven't you?" I asked, laughing nervously before I could stop myself. "It's my contract mark."

He tilted his head to consider that for a few moments. "Maybe I have? I'm pretty sure I would remember."

I shrugged a little. Nero wandered back away from Vergil to hover at Kyrie's side. I really hated the taste of the mistake in my glass.

"Anyway, that's not what I came over here to bring up," he said, waving his hand.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I need you to convince my brother to sing," he said.

That wasn't what I was expecting at all. "Hey, first you tell me he's dangerous, now you want me to get him onstage? What makes you think I can?"

He looked a little surprised by my response, a sheepish grin as he turned his cheek to the side. "Well… I'm pretty sure if I bother him again after getting the entire room to gape at him like that, he'll skewer me on principle."

I laughed, but my smile fell when he didn't laugh with me. "Not literally, right?"

He just shrugged. It sounded like he hadn't expected me to ask him for his reasoning. "I dunno if you've noticed, but Vergil likes to be alone when he's going through shit, which is most of the time. He always leaves these things early and I really doubt that hiding in the corner and licking his wounds is his idea of fun either."

"So… make sure he has fun?" I asked. This was still a really weird request. "I don't think I can promise that."

He shrugged again, and I realized I'd found myself in a much more serious conversation with him than I'd been prepared for.

"I'll talk to him, I guess." I hated to admit that Celaeno was right about my fear of disappointing someone, and I even doubted that Dante realized what he was putting me in an uncomfortable situation. He just seemed so uncharacteristically serious that I couldn't turn him down.

Lucia's song was winding down. She didn't have Dante's flair, but the drive behind her voice was so soulful that without a distraction, it was hard to tear my eyes away from her.

I saw Nero again, making his way over to the computer and took this as a cue to dump my drink down the drain.

After pouring some rum into a fresh glass of punch (the same atrocity Vergil had chastised me for earlier) a second time, I made up my mind to perform too.

Nero was taking Lucia's place by the time I got to the computer. The song I chose was some acoustic classic. It wouldn't wow anyone, but I was in the mood to sing, not impress.

The song Nero had chosen was more suited to his energy than his singing voice. The bass was satisfyingly scratchy. I recognized the sound of the song, but didn't know the name.

As his song ended, I found myself hesitant to take his place. It wasn't like me to be nervous, so it surprised me. That was enough to ignore the feeling for a little while longer.

The lights were dimmed everywhere except in that corner in front of the jukebox. It wasn't a proper spotlight, but as I stood in it, I couldn't make out anything past the screen displaying the lyrics.

I had kept my drink when I went to sing, so my movements were restrained so that I wouldn't spill it. I felt uncomfortably stiff the whole time, and somehow suddenly self conscious about my bare neck and shoulders. When the song was over, I almost laughed at how relieved I was to not be in the spotlight anymore.

Unsure why I was feeling so antsy, I downed the rest of my glass a little too quickly.

As I gulped it down, I looked across the room and accidentally caught Vergil's eye.

I had to look away, but I had been too late to do so without being obvious, so instead of being childish about it, I just walked over to him.

I looked at the glass in his hand. By this point it was nearly empty, but it was definitely the same drink, since I didn't think he'd left this corner since arriving to it. I thought I should pay better attention to what I was drinking, I'd only had two drinks, and hadn't even half finished my third, but I had been quick to replace it.

"So… any chance of you picking a song tonight?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes. "As much as Dante prods, no. I am not going anywhere near that machine."

"Yeah, I didn't think so," I laughed softly, folding my free arm across my chest to grip the opposing upper arm. "But I thought I'd give it a shot, since your brother all but begged me to ask."

"Mm, I'd wondered what he was talking to you about," he said, looking into his glass. "He's been acting strange lately."

My eyebrows went up at that. "I mean, it was kind of a weird question, but… Has he? "

He nodded a little bit. "A little… This isn't the first time he's asked you to speak to me on his behalf, right?"

"Right," I murmured, suddenly trying to recall a single interaction I'd ever had with Dante.

"And he sent you to Fortuna, apparently on my recommendation," he said, glancing back to me finally. "It may be the right thing to do, but I think he has an ulterior motive."

"I guess I'm just not naturally suspicious," I said, a small smile. "If you say he's up to something, you probably know better than me, but I don't think helping me out constitutes as suspicious behavior."

"He tried to coax me out to the bar the other night by telling me you would be there," he said, eyes darting back to the glass.

I paused.

"Oh, that is kind of strange," I said, looking down into my own glass as well. The cool air from the vents brushed against my neck, and I tried to ignore the biting feeling that I was underdressed without something hiding my mark. My shoes had suddenly become very interesting to me.

He had shown up to the bar, though.

It was Nico's turn onstage, a very bold duet with Kyrie.

It was pretty obvious by the way Kyrie sang that she knew what she was doing. Was she classically trained? Nico's voice was weaker, but the way she kept up with the song despite that made me think that the upbeat pop song had been her idea. I recognized the song - it had been a popular summer hit a few years ago and it wasn't originally a duet, but I didn't know its name either.

"That's… really embarrassing," I said, just loud enough so he could hear. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," he scoffed. "Dante does as he pleases. His latest project is trying to get me to integrate better into human society. I suppose, in his mind, he thinks he's doing at least one of us a favor."

"By setting us up?"

"Don't ask me to understand how his mind works," he said, shaking his head. "I wasn't convinced that what I suspected was reality until tonight, though. I'll put a stop to it later, I suppose."

I swayed my glass just a little, as if that would make the mixture of coconut and citrus taste any better. It wasn't bad, and it was very nearly empty again.

"Celaeno has uh… worried about the same thing," I said, my wording uncertain. "I mean… please don't take offense to this, but she doesn't like anyone getting too close to knowing anything about her, so you're not really her favorite person right now."

Vergil shifted his weight so he wasn't leaning on the wall as heavily anymore, turning his head to look at me. "That doesn't surprise me. I haven't exactly made my curiosity secret. But what on earth is she worried about?"

"Two parts overprotection, one part pettiness," I said, waving my hand. "She's worried about me, I guess; I don't have a very good track record with relationships. But I kind of hate that she just assumes I have an interest in a guy just because I enjoy talking to you."

He looked distracted again. "I… suppose the assumption would bother me too."

I was starting to feel slow and stupid, not a great sign. My stomach turned once, and I gripped my sleeves a little tighter, frowning at my empty glass. This was a bad conversation for the situation I'd put myself in.

"Hey, just out of curiosity, what were you talking to Nero about earlier?" I asked, changing it as skillfully as I could manage it, which admittedly wasn't very skillful at all.

I thought I heard Dante onstage again.

"Oh," I heard him sigh. He made a vague gesture with his hand. "Idle chatter."

I nodded understandingly, my head ringing a little with the motion. I had already guessed as much, considering what I knew of Vergil's social skills. I was surprised he tolerated my presence, after what he'd told me about Dante, if he only barely on speaking terms with his own son. I recalled that Kyrie mentioned his attempts to connect with him.

"Have you tried visiting him at his home?" I asked, swaying slightly to find a more comfortable standing position.

He pressed his lips together tightly, then craned his neck to watch the performance. "I've… been there once before."

I gripped my sleeve a little tighter, tilting my head just a little. "Yeah, Kyrie mentioned that, actually."

Vergil winced. "Did she? That's just as well."

There was a sort of unspoken sentiment there: he wasn't trying to hide anything, but I could tell he didn't want to get into it. I wasn't sure if it was any of my business anyway.

"I don't need the details or anything," I said, brushing it off. "Dante asked me to make sure you're not trapped in your own head, remember?"

"Don't tell me you're actually listening to him," he said, a slight, weary smile on his expression.

"If anything, it seems like he has a pretty good idea of what makes you tick," I said.

My smile turned sour at the same time as I felt my stomach curdle, pushing me at last. I should have eaten first, or at least paid more attention to what I was drinking. Nothing was going to settle this stomach ache.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked, studying me. His expression was different, like he hadn't really been looking at me before.

The cool air that brushed against my shoulders only agitated me, and I found myself resting the back of my hand over my throat in a gesture that was just slightly less awkward than how I felt. No, I probably wasn't alright.

I shoved my glass into his hand and pushed past him as my stomach lurched, in a hurry to get to the bathroom before I had to be sick.

The music was muffled by the bathroom door, but it still felt too loud as every one of my senses seemed to be drowning me. The pounding music, the voices over the speaker, the slightly tinny sound of the microphone. It was too much. I tucked my hair behind my ears as I fell to my knees beside the toilet bowl.

I heard everyone cheering at the same time as the metal and ceramic clinked together when the toilet was flushed. I turned to the sink to see my bleary expression, red and trembling from strain in the mirror.

I didn't want to see how I looked in this dress, so I cleaned up my face as best as I could, then made my escape into the party again.

A few minutes had passed, I realized. My head felt clearer, with less alcohol for my system to process, but the damage was already done. Instead of my brain feeling too slow, I just felt like an idiot.

Vergil was still standing there, a glass in each hand, clearly waiting for me to return.

I was pretty sure I looked as miserable as I felt, because I heard him click his tongue as he moved to find a flat surface to set the glasses down.

"...Better?" I heard Celaeno ask, but that was all I could make out.

"I need to get out of here," I said, groaning just a little.

There was no way I was going to get out of the party without making an even bigger scene, though.

"What happened to you?" Nico asked, nearly running into me as she turned away from the group to the snack table.

I gestured weakly with my hand. "Threw up in the bathroom."

Her expression turned softer when I answered, but that didn't make me feel better.

"Do you want to go home and get cleaned up?" she asked, blinking. "I'm the designated driver, so I can take you."

Vergil returned a moment later. He looked over his shoulder to where Dante was standing now, helping someone pick something out at the computer.

"I can take you home," he offered, nodding to me.

I gave Nico an apologetic look. "I'll catch up with you tomorrow, okay?"

I would get home faster if I went with him. And it was less likely to make me sick again than her driving.

We left the party after I let Dante know what had happened. It was embarrassing, and I knew he was disappointed that I wasn't going to be coming back for the evening despite the fact that I hadn't even made it to midnight. Still, I had to let someone know before I disappeared.

Once the front door of the shop was shut behind us, Vergil cut open a portal and took me home.


	12. Chapter 12

I felt awfully sullen as I stepped through the veil and into my apartment.

Why had I done this to myself? I knew better. I thought I did, anyway. Maybe there was a reason I didn't drink very often, apart from consideration for Celaeno. Maybe after this I'd give it up entirely for good.

I didn't waste any time once I was inside and went straight to the bathroom to clean up. I'd showered that morning, but after the night I'd had, it didn't feel like enough.

Vergil stepped through the portal a moment after I did, and I called out to him to make himself at home until I was done.

I could feel the pity party setting in as I tried my best to wash my mouth out. The taste of every foul concoction I'd drunk that night wouldn't leave. I had to force myself to gargle some mouthwash - even the smell of that made my stomach turn.

I peeled my dress off, refusing to make eye contact with the mirror as I pulled my pajamas on. The dress was discarded in the bathtub, and I would probably throw it out in the morning.

Finally, I exited the bathroom and found Vergil sitting on my beat up old couch, inspecting my journal, which I had left open on the coffee table.

"Happy New Year," he murmured, closing the book when he saw me.

I heard the popping of fireworks going off in the far distance, but I was too busy focusing on the journal. It was basically a to-do list, not like it was my personal diary or anything, but I could only press my lips into a tight line as my eyes watered against my will. I tried to nod back.

He seemed to sense that I was upset, but I must have looked much worse than I thought, standing there in a long sleeved t-shirt and fleecy pants. "I apologize. I shouldn't have looked, but it was open and your illustration caught my eye."

Humiliation stung my eyes as a soft hiccup escaped me. All I could do was shake my head. I knew I wasn't upset about the journal. "It's not you."

Tears finally spilled over, warming my cheeks, and I tried not to look at him directly when his expression turned to one of surprise.

"Sorry," I said quickly.

We realized at the same time that I was still standing, and he offered me the seat beside him on the couch, patting the cushion in spite of his bewildered expression.

"Don't apologize to me," he said as I sat beside him. "You haven't done anything."

I choked on a sob. "Sorry- I know, it's just…"

There was no way I was going to get through that sentence without apologizing again, so I just gave up, a weak wave of my hands.

My body felt too heavy and numb when I sat down, like I was wrapped in a layer of cotton. I felt ridiculous. Getting the alcohol out of my system shocked me into almost feeling sober, but the damage was already done.

"I feel like I shouldn't have let this happen," I said, looking at my hands.

He only gave a hum in response.

"I didn't want to ruin the party by leaving," I mumbled. "But I shouldn't have gotten drunk in the first place."

"The party is fine. Expect a call in the morning, but they'll go on," he said finally. "The question now is what will you do about it now? How will you change this?"

I sighed. "Are you giving me life advice now? For starters, maybe I'll quit drinking entirely."

"Do you mean that? Or do you just regret it now that you're facing the consequences?" he asked.

His voice wasn't harsh, but his body language was still closed. I didn't think I was being scolded, I knew he was trying to talk me through it, but I felt childish under his gaze.

"I hope I mean it - it's not like this is the first time in my life that I've drunk myself sick," I said. "Is this supposed to make me feel better?"

He craned his neck. "It depends on what you do with the answer. If you don't want this to happen again, you must resolve to prevent it. That power is yours to take advantage of."

I looked at him with a pathetic sniffle, and a weak smile. "Then I'll resolve when I'm feeling better. It's the new year, isn't it?"

Vergil gave a snort, finally unfolding his arms to rest one on the arm of the couch, and the other behind me on its back. I felt more relaxed already, somehow.

"Yes, it is," he chuckled. "But I have a feeling you have something else on your mind entirely."

"You can tell?" I said, a little more bitterness than sarcasm in my tone than I'd intended. "I'm sorry, you're right. All this is just a symptom."

He didn't speak, and I realized that he was waiting for me to elaborate. A bad habit, I was noticing.

"Shouldn't you get back to the party?" I asked, but I knew he was probably planning on skipping out anyway.

"I can't think of anything less appealing than returning to a New Year's Eve party after the countdown has already passed," he said, rolling his eyes.

He would rather watch me cry and listen to me whine about my problems than be stuck in a crowded room, he meant. Small consolation.

Still, I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Let's sit on the balcony," I suggested. "I think I could use the air."

It was cold, so while Vergil got to his feet, I pulled my wool coat down from the hanging rack near the front door. I showed him through my bedroom to the balcony, buttoning the coat tightly.

It was scarcely used and hardly decorated, save for a few slightly faded fake plants I'd purchased because I knew I'd never take care of a real one, and a wooden bench.

The brisk air chilled me, but as I sat down on the bench, and he beside me, it was enough to get me thinking again.

"It's the dress that has me upset," I admitted, sighing a bit.

"You're crying over a dress?"

I nudged his arm with my elbow. "That's obviously not the entire problem - but the dress - it was Jay's favorite," I said, wrinkling my nose as the words came out.

He paused to pull his hand away from where he rested his cheek against it. "Ah, this is the ex… husband?"

"Boyfriend," I corrected. Jay wasn't the traditional marriage type, but... "They probably would have had me locked up forever if our relationship was documented."

He nodded thoughtfully.

"No, it just reminds me of him," I said. "I tried to leave him before meeting Celaeno, so I only packed a few pieces of clothing with me, and it was still ready to go when I finally did leave. It was and is the only nice dress I own, so I thought I could wear it to job interviews in a pinch."

"A cocktail dress?"

"Yeah, the glitter gives it away, but with some kind of pullover…" I trailed off. I was getting distracted.

"Anyway, yeah. He never touched me any way I didn't want to be touched, but that's a low bar for a healthy relationship," I scowled. "He would come home from work and slam the door shut too hard. When he took off his shoes, he threw them against the shoe rack because he knew it bothered me, that kind of thing."

"Oh." That was all he said for a few minutes.

Time waited for no one, but there were still fireworks going off across the city from the meager view we had. I heard more than I saw, it somehow felt like we were trapped at midnight, the clock unmoving.

"That explains some things," he murmured. "Did he ever… hurt you?"

The question caught me off guard, and I really didn't want to think about that, but I wanted to let someone in so badly. The only other soul who knew was Celaeno, and right then even her voice was out of my reach. I needed another person to hear me. "Not often… not so badly I ever had to go to the hospital. But even once was more than enough to be afraid of his moods."

"Of course."

"I hate him. I _still_ hate him so much it hurts."

Vergil went quiet again, but this time I knew he was at a loss. I was too.

"Some sacrifice," he said.

I gave a solemn nod. "That's what I said, when Celaeno told me she needed a sacrifice. Fulfilling my wishes and sealing our contract were the same goal."

He nodded as the silence grew between us again. This time it was more comfortable than before. I was still coming down from how I had behaved at the party, and my already sore throat felt raw and swollen from crying.

I was starting to feel like there was no point in thinking about it. I was tired, and only mostly sober - two conditions that were too counterproductive for problem solving.

A heavy sigh left my lips, further agitating my throat. I was content with the silence, but I was afraid he would leave me alone. Being completely alone was something I wasn't used to anymore, and without Celaeno, I only had him. And only as long as he would let me.

"He was the reason I met Celaeno in the first place," I said, looking up at him. "I never would have even known about all of this without him."

Vergil's eyebrows drew together at that. "Is that so?"

I managed a small smile. "That's right. He was a conservator at a museum. They handled all kinds of artefacts - all human-made ideally, but someone sent in something special."

"Your dagger?" he offered.

I nodded. "Technically, the dagger itself was made by humans at some point, but it's Celaeno herself that makes it really special. You know more about devil arms than I do, so I don't need to explain that, but I bet you're wondering how they found it, right?"

"I am," he agreed. "I've read demonic texts that mention Celaeno's Gale, but its appearance in the human world is surprisingly poorly documented. Of the hands it's passed through, yours is the first account I've ever encountered."

I tapped the tip of my nose, nodding. "I only know a little about the ones that came before me. Celaeno is… secretive, to say the least. I'm surprised you found anything at all. I know I'm the only person to have a contract with her in a long time."

"So how did the arrangement with the museum come to be?" he asked.

I felt something flare up within me suddenly. Celaeno wasn't happy, and I could feel something burning up inside me, despite not currently being able to hear her.

"She, uh, doesn't want me to tell you," I said, frowning.

_I _wanted to tell him. I wanted to be seen so badly.

"Somewhere in Europe, they unearthed an old body, so they started a dig near this lake. I'm not sure of the exact location, because I really wasn't worried about that at the time, but Celaeno's Gale was there among the things found in the lake," I said, leaning back. "The problem was, they couldn't prove the origins of the dagger. It wasn't like any of the other items they found in the dig, and even though it looked old, there was almost no wear on it, so they had no idea how old or valuable it really is."

"That's typical of devil arms," he said, nodding. "They can be broken, but it requires an equal or greater force."

"They sent the dagger to be investigated by the museum that Jay worked for, and he was assigned to it. They do carbon dating and stuff to try and figure out how old their finds are, right? But it wasn't giving back any coherent results. Jay brought it home and showed it to me once while he was working with it."

I saw Vergil's expression turn skeptical. "They sent such an artefact home with one of their researchers?"

"At that point, they were already disappointed that it wasn't likely to be as old or interesting as they'd originally thought," I explained. "They determined it was probably some kind of replica made by an enthusiast, and wasn't related to the body or other items they found at all."

He scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"So once they'd nearly dismissed it, Jay took it to work from home," I said.

Things got rough after that. Since it was unearthed, no one else had heard Celaeno's voice before me. The dagger stayed in our home for a couple of months with no one ever discovering its true value.

"Something… set Jay off. I don't remember what - I don't care what, but things got ugly fast," I said, folding my hands on my lap. I pulled my coat tighter. "We started talking about or relationship again. I'd wanted to leave him for a while, but I usually got dragged back or talked out of it. He wasn't big on tradition, but his family was. He wanted marriage, kids… whatever would keep me from leaving. I packed a few of my things that night and stayed in a hotel outside of town, but on the way out, I took the dagger.

"I don't really know why I did it, and I was sure he'd call the police on me, but the night went by peacefully," I shrugged. "And… I'm guilty of being childish at times, but all I wanted was to never have to go back to him again. When I held the dagger, I could almost feel like it was alive, and then she spoke to me. She said she wanted her freedom too, and I took her offer as soon as she made it. Maybe I was too desperate."

Vergil shook his head. "The will to see something through is admirable. You proved yourself."

"I don't feel like I did. If I had never been in that situation- I never should have been stuck with him in the first place," I said. "There shouldn't have been anything to prove. All it did was hurt me."

"I suppose you're right," he said, looking up at the ceiling. I thought he might have been embarrassed, but I moved on, not wanting to think too hard about it either.

"When I told her the thing I wanted was the same thing as her fee, she granted me her power a little early, and… you can guess what happened after that," I said, shivering.

"What does using the armor feel like?"

"It was scary at first. Demon attacks were… rare, where I lived, or they happened to someone else, so my encounters with them were basically nonexistent before this," I shrugged a little, leaning my head to the side while I looked down at the railing ahead of me and pursed my lips. "But it feels… good. Powerful. As a weapon, it's not really anything special, but Celaeno's armor lets me be more reckless, for sure, and… You know, humans aren't as durable as even the weakest demons. Um… the wings are a really nice perk too. I used to be afraid of heights, but now I'm only afraid of falling."

I laughed quietly, unsure of what kind of answer he was looking for. "But yeah… it was definitely worth the tradeoff."

"What did you trade to her?" he asked, tilting his head at me.

This was the part I knew I wasn't supposed to tell him. Oh, but I wanted to.

"Hey, come on. You've never told me anything about your contract. What about you?" I asked instead, nervous when I felt her burning anger again.

He looked reluctant to answer, and I expected him to tell me off. Our visible breath in the cold air reminded me of the time I'd seen him at his apartment. Slowly, he began anyway. "I've told you that it was… different. The contracts I held weren't typical."

Now I was intrigued. "Contracts?" I asked, with emphasis on the plurality.

A small shrug. "They were too unusual. The creatures with whom the contracts were held weren't _exactly_ demons, but… figments of nightmares that originated from me. Demonic in nature, but they only resembled the real thing."

What? Who was it who told me about someone with three contracts before? "Are you the one Lady mentioned, with three contracts?"

He thought for a moment, then nodded once. "If someone brought it up to you, I suppose they must have meant me."

I had to take a moment to process that. Even Celaeno had been interested in that information. I had to know more. "Tell me about them."

With a sigh, he nodded. "Chiefly, there were three beings that were created from my… nightmares; my time spent as a servant to Mundus. There were originally four of them, but one of them proved too troublesome to manage, so I disposed of it."

"Hold on, I know you just said this a minute ago, but what do you mean they came from you?"

With each question I asked, he looked more weary. "This is a much more complicated story than I think you're ready to hear right now. Shall we focus on one thing at a time?"

"If you promise to explain later," I said, nodding pleasantly.

He rolled his eyes, but for a moment I thought he might have smiled, even though he looked somehow pained. "I'd like to find a more appropriate time to give you an explanation - perhaps when you're not half addled from drinking that swill you mixed at the party?"

I leaned forward to move closer to him. "Please tell me? I can handle it."

A hesitant hum sounded from deep in his chest, and it was clear from his expression that he was doing some serious thinking about it. I couldn't imagine what could make him balk so hard on telling me, except that I knew he didn't like to talk to begin with. His consideration might be as much as I could hope for.

Giving a sigh of finality, he nodded. "I'll try to tell you what I can. As I said, it's complicated, but I will let you make your own judgements."

Vergil's reluctance to continue, the unconfident tone in his voice was so unusual. I found myself drawn in already.

"You heard of the events that led to the near complete destruction of Red Grave City?" he asked.

My eyes widened. "Now you _have_ to tell me. Dante wouldn't tell me a word of the details, but… he told me you caused it."

Vergil's expression went blank, immediately distant and suspicious. "Did he? It seems he's been doing more sneaking around behind my back than I thought."

He shook his head without elaborating, but I felt embarrassed all over again, and figured there wasn't anything else I needed or wanted to hear about the Dante situation.

"But yes, what happened in Red Grave was my doing," he said after a moment. I expected him to continue, but when I looked up, he was deep in thought.

"Go on," I coaxed. "I'm listening."

"You have to understand, at the time, I was already half dead," he said, a slightly defensive edge in his voice. He brought a hand to his face to scratch his cheek. "It took a very long time, but I clawed my way out of the underworld and tracked down my blade - the Yamato."

He paused to look at me. "Ah, am I correct to assume you don't know how the Yamato works?"

I frowned. "Not anymore than what I've seen. Celaeno might know a little about it, but… I don't exactly have access to her right now."

He smiled weakly, then looked over the balcony again. "Right. We'll talk about your situation later, if you aren't repulsed by my presence by the time I'm finished."

"Anyway, I figured as much. It's alright. I understand it better than anyone else living," he said, nodding. "Each time a portal is opened, the veil between our two worlds is temporarily severed. It separates the human world from the world of demons. I realized… why couldn't it do the same to other objects? Or even a living being?"

When I seemed confused, he nodded and gestured to himself with one hand. "My body was on the brink of deteriorating, so to buy myself more time, I used the Yamato to split myself into two halves: my humanity from my demonic half."

"I guess it must have turned out alright…" I murmured incredulously.

He shrugged. "I considered my humanity to be what was holding me back. It was the part of myself that was capable of being plagued by my traumas, therefore, since I'd had no luck overcoming them, I removed it instead."

"Is that… how that works?"

"Of course not. It was just an excuse to rationalize my means to an end. I tried casting away everything that made me who I am. I couldn't stand anything that reminded me of my identity - my humanity, my name, my form - and the only thing it accomplished was to make me cruel." He scowled, but I could hear him straining with the effort he was taking to keep his voice even as he spoke. "My memories still buzzed around in my head like flies, and I feigned ignorance to fuel my desire to see my actions through. The truth is that my demonic half is still a reflection of myself. Both my trauma and my sins."

"So… what happened to your humanity? It didn't disappear," I offered meekly.

"No, it split off and became its own shadow of me," he said, sighing. "Taking with it my nightmares. Familiars. Whatever you'd like to call them, in that state of being. They were the creatures that I, or my human half, formed contracts with."

I felt like I had more questions for him than before he'd started talking. If he'd successfully split himself into two beings, I didn't know where that left him now. If this was just a little more than a year ago, it sounded like he'd done a lot of thinking about the whole situation in that time.

"So… this probably sounds really insensitive, but what does that make you now?" I asked.

He paused for a moment, then shook his head.

"I suppose I'm better than when I started," he said, rolling his eyes. "But I only existed in the form of two separate entities for around two months, if that. The only difference now is that I'm… relatively stable. Not in danger of physically falling apart, at least."

I nodded. Whatever a child of a human and a demon could be called, he had come out of that stronger. "And then… your demon half?"

A look that reminded me of a guilty dog as he tried not to meet my eyes. "I called him Urizen. Just as he didn't want to be associated with my name, my human half didn't want to acknowledge him either. I was ashamed, just as much as I was ashamed of my humanity before I split myself in half, but instead of being ashamed of my heritage, it was Urizen's lack of humanity that fueled my actions."

A tugging feeling gnawed at me. "What about the city?"

"There is a mythical tree, whose fruit is capable of bestowing staggering amounts of power to whomever tastes it. It's a symbol of will, status, and power. Cultivating one is no easy task - it takes thousands of human lives to acquire the sheer volume of blood it requires. Even Mundus once ate this forbidden fruit, and now so have I."

I conjured up the image of cracked and broken cement being reclaimed by the roots of a tree, perhaps the foundation of a house. If unchecked, the damage would be beyond salvaging, and though efforts to rebuild the major city were still underway a year later, I already knew this was much worse.

He sighed again. "That was Urizen's doing, but as I said, he's a fraction of me. I can't free myself of the blame anymore than I could truly free myself of my humanity then."

Dante was right, Vergil was dangerous. I averted my eyes from him, but I felt guilty about that too. "And what you did to Nero…?"

"I forgot you'd already heard about that," he admitted, making a face. "The Yamato was actually in his possession when I reclaimed it. I took it by force, naturally, and he was in critical condition when I left him. At the time, I had no idea who he was, but even I know that hardly makes it better. I wanted to ensure my survival… at any cost."

I realized how heavy the air had become, this time not because of demonic energy, but rather the tense atmosphere. No, I didn't know what to say. What I did know was that the situation had been defused, but that didn't console me very much.

He didn't speak for a few minutes either, before he asked me something that surprised me. "...Should I leave?"

"I… don't know," I admitted, tilting my head oddly at him. "I think if something hadn't changed, you wouldn't be sitting here now."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Likely not. If things had gone even slightly differently, I would probably not be alive."

"So what happened?"

"Ultimately, my human half and my demon half were reunited." As he spoke, he held out the index fingers of both hands and joined them side by side. "You'll never guess which half felt enough remorse to right my wrong."

I cracked a tiny smile, but I still felt shaken. "You told me that luck had nothing to do with survival, but I think you're wrong about one part of that. You're pretty lucky to have a family that will give you a second chance."

At that, he nodded. "Yes… I have to agree there. I think Dante is like me - in that we understand each other's nature from a respectful distance. He's… willing to overlook it, because we've done this for so long that he probably expects me to make the same mistakes by now."

"Dante sort of helped you through it, didn't he?" I asked. "I know Dante was there too, but… obviously I don't know much about any of this."

"Well… my human half was frail," he admitted, giving a sigh. "Even by human standards. It was a more than humbling experience, but Dante was the only one who could remedy the situation I'd caused. Urizen was too strong for my human half to defeat, and he would never hear a word on reuniting without having it beaten out of him. So… I went to Dante."

"You were too embarrassed to ask for his help?" I asked.

He gave a small grunt of disagreement. "No, I knew he was my only option. I went to him, but… I concealed the identity of my human half from him. I thought he might tell me to handle my own problems if I was honest with him. As for my demon half, he didn't need another reason to already resent me, and even if I lied to him, he would recognize Urizen the second he met him anyway. I made no attempt to hide that from him."

I sat for a few moments quietly. The whole thing was reprehensible, but he seemed remorseful. I honestly just couldn't believe he was actually opening up to me. Even if what he'd done was terrible… it sounded like he was owning up to it. Was that why he'd let himself end up in his current arrangement with his family? And why he'd been trying to make amends to Nero?

"Why did you do it? Not just to heal yourself?" I asked.

"No, if that were all, I probably could have ended the whole thing without cultivating a demonic tree," he muttered, leaning his cheek on his hand. "My father was a great man, and a demon. With all that power… he used it to convey his love for humans. I've never shared that love, and I felt that it was my humanity that made me weak. It was… foolish. A poor understanding of things, at best."

I felt like parts of his explanation were missing clarification, but I felt like I understood. Was he… trying to live up to Sparda's reputation? That was probably reading _too _far into it.

The fireworks had all but stopped, save for a distant and non-visible crackling every few minutes. That long midnight had finally passed, and the new year was upon us.

My mind still hazy, I looked up at him. It was going to take some time to process this, but he was already taking baby steps to recover from what he'd done. That was good to hear, but the prospect and the effect of his actions were frankly monstrous. I knew he didn't need to be told that.

"You still want to know what I traded to Celaeno?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.

He glanced at me, a little surprised, but he nodded. "Yes… if you're willing to share it."

I could feel Celaeno revolting again, but couldn't hear her. She was protesting, but the contract didn't belong only to her. The details of what I had given her were my business as well as hers, and I wanted to be able to trust Vergil too, after that.

"I traded a part of my life," I said, nodding. "Or… I guess my afterlife. Whatever the truth about _that_ is."

I felt the burning anger Celaeno pitched against me intensify, then suddenly fizzle out. I wondered briefly if she'd given up, but I knew she'd have some strong words for me later.

"After I die… one day, however that happens," I said, smiling a little, nervous. "She gets to take my body and use it for herself, for seven times whatever the length of time I borrow her power for turns out to be. Essentially, we'll switch places. She'll be in control, and I turn into another voice in the back of her head. After that… I dunno. Maybe I'll go directly to hell for making a deal with a demon. I don't really know what happens."

"What would be to stop her from backing out of the deal?" he asked, frowning. "Do you still have to serve her then?"

I shook my head. "No, during this half of the contract, she can't back out of it at all. She can end my service early, but not before my natural death. The thing is, she's usually confined to her dagger, she doesn't have her own form anymore, so that's why she wants someone to carry her around and use her, so eventually she gets something out of it."

"And I suppose that once your service starts, you can't back out of the deal then?"

"Nope. I can break it off anytime I want now, but I still have to serve. If I decided after a year that it wasn't for me, I'd still have to give her my body for seven years," I said. "I don't know what she'll do then. Maybe she'll travel, or keep doing exactly what I'm doing now. Celaeno is a little bookish, so maybe she'll take my body back to college and actually get a degree this time."

"You attended college?"

I shook my head quickly. "A little, but I dropped out when my parents cut me off. Like I said, I moved out a little too soon to go live with Jay. I had jobs… but the funny thing is about controlling men is that they hate not knowing where you are at all times. He wanted me at home, and he had a good enough job to support that."

"Escaping your situation, maybe you're the lucky one," he murmured, thinking.

I smiled, what I hoped didn't look as stupid as it felt through my brain fog. "I think so. For better or for worse, Celaeno is the best thing that's ever happened to me."

He turned to face me, now resting his arm on the back of the bench, and his head against his hand. He didn't say anything. I felt weird, looking at him like this. Too weird.

I turned my eyes away from him, another nervous smile. "I really don't want to just kick you out, but it's kind of late, and I'm a little worn out from… this whole mess. Think we can talk again some other time?"

Vergil's shoulders stiffened as he sat up, pulling away from me, and then rose to his feet. "Some other time," he agreed.

I stood up after him to show him to the door, but I felt almost sad to see him go, even after what he told me.

Celaeno was going to kill me, I just knew it. I was almost grateful that I couldn't think clearly enough to hear her, but I really did mean what I said. If I didn't want this to happen, I was going to stop drinking altogether.

If I could hear her voice, she'd have some choice words for me.

I said goodbye to Vergil, and then immediately fell into my bed. I was too tired to look forward to spending the next few days catching up with our visitors before they left, so instead I decided to catch up on my sleep.

Maybe falling asleep without Celaeno felt a little too quiet.


	13. Chapter 13

The dull throb of a hangover made opening my eyes a chore, but my phone was buzzing on my nightstand, making itself difficult to ignore.

I opened one eye to glare at the ID, but I didn't recognize the number. Ignored.

For a while, I tried again to go back to sleep, but now it was the silence that was too difficult to ignore.

It was after ten already, so there was a text from Nico ("feeling better? :c"), and that missed call. No voicemail. Their loss.

As I replied to Nico's text, something still felt off to me.

Where was my Celaeno's voice? I was painfully aware of the things I'd said the previous night, the confession of my contract's details to Vergil… I knew she would still be angry, but I expected to hear her scolding me first thing after waking.

I reached under my pillow for the dagger. I ran my fingers over the sheathed blade, a tender gesture that I wondered if she felt. I could still feel her. She was just… out of my reach. I put my face in my hands as I ran through the previous night's events in my head.

After a call from Dante, I lamented the fact that humans and demons didn't observe the same calendar. I had no plans, but I didn't exactly want to ring in the new year with demon hunting.

"I would do it myself, but it's just a few streets over from your apartment, right?" he'd said, referring to the nest of empusa that had indeed opened up only a couple of blocks away from me. I would reach it before anyone else could, so I agreed.

I chased my self-inflicted and entirely deserved hangover with more pickle juice than I really cared to drink at once, at the same time pushing aside the high turtleneck I wore to trace the pale outline of my contract mark. I could feel her, but… even though she was intentionally shutting me out, I could also feel frustration and anger rolling off of her in waves. I had royally pissed her off, that much was obvious, but there wasn't much time to think about that when there was work to be done.

The ride to the abandoned home not far from my apartment building was painfully silent as well.

From the look of it, the empusa had settled into a small house with a huge yard; all had fallen into disrepair. When I first moved into my apartment, it was up for debate whether the house's owner was simply reclusive or if it was really empty. Now, there was no question. The lawn was overgrown, with peeling paint flaking off the building in dusty chunks around it. The windows on one side were covered with multicolored particle board. No one had lived here in a long time, probably longer than since I arrived.

Not that the ants were very afraid of humans at all, when they could easily outnumber them. I tried not to think of that as I looked for a way in.

Unfortunately, unless I wore Celaeno's armor, I couldn't detect the demons myself, but I had Celaeno's dagger with me, as always. I hoped a whole nest, even a new nest, would be noticeable enough even to a human, but with the dagger, I was able to point myself in the right direction.

I hiked myself up over the chainlink fence, worried about how I would look trying to break into an abandoned house. The boarded windows would probably be the easiest way to get in, except that I didn't have any way to remove the board without hurting myself. The boards looked relatively fresh too. I wondered if the owner, or current owner, had previously had trouble with trespassers.

I moved quietly through the yard, and around the perimeter of the house, thoroughly not enjoying the grass that tickled the sides of my denim-covered legs. On one side of the house, the board had been removed already. Definitely by human hands, as the board was lying in the grass beside it, carefully propped up against the building. I wasn't excited about the idea of running into other humans while I was working, but that opening would have to do.

Before I even entered the window, a certain smell hit my nostrils again, causing me to retch and recoil from the window. I doubted very much I would find any other humans there, on second thought. No matter how many times I smelled it, I would never get used to it. Empusa naturally carried a rank smell of corpses about them, but this was new, I knew it. If the house had been disturbed by trespassers before, that problem had probably solved itself.

The stench was even worse the closer I got to the window, so I covered my face with my turtleneck. Rolling down the sleeves of my jacket for a little extra protection, I crawled into the open window. If the empusa didn't know I was here already, they probably would know soon.

The room was coated in layers of dust, the flooring a water-stained carpet that was warped and raised up like ripples in a pond.

In the center of the room were a couple of old wicker dining chairs, one with a torn up hole where the seat should have been. To the side was a pile of garbage - bags of chips and bear cans, on top of a heap of crumbled, caved in ceiling.

I looked down at my feet to see the shattered remains of something made of multi-colored glass. The smell of old smoke was also present, clinging to the walls somehow, mingling with the smell of death in new and unpleasant ways. I couldn't identify the object that was even more crushed up as my boots crunched across it, but I could put two and two together.

The uneven flooring threw me off at first, but I kept my footing as I moved into the living area, or what looked like it. The carpet gave way to wood that was in dire need of a new finish.

In this room, the dust wasn't as thick, and the scuffed up floor had clawmark trails leading in and out of a hole in the center of the room.

The nest wasn't actually on the lost, but underneath it.

Trying to scope out the area alone, when this nest had clearly been here longer than we had realized was a bad idea.

I pulled out my phone and grimaced as I prayed that someone was still around to answer Dante's phone.

Despite the voice in the back of my head (my own, not Celaeno's) that hissed at me to prepare for the worst, Dante picked up after the fourth ring.

"Devil May Cry," came his greeting - intended for a customer and not myself.

"Hey, it's me again. So I'm standing in front of the empusa nest, but they've already burrowed under the house," I said carefully, moving back away from the entrance to avoid attracting attention. "They're just empusa, but this might not be a one person job after all."

I could almost hear Dante's grin over the phone. "You can't handle a few ants on your own? But I hear you. I'll send over Nero. Kid's probably bored out of his head, since he hasn't had anything to sharpen his sword on in a while."

After seeing Nero with his girlfriend at the party, I sort of doubted that was all he lived for - but he took himself seriously and would be here as soon as he could.

But there was someone who could get to me even faster .

"What about Vergil?" I asked. "He knows where my apartment is, so he'd probably get here before Nero."

I felt another wave of jealousy and anger pulsing from Celaeno. It was enough to make me dizzy.

"Vergil?" Dante made a kind of blow-offy 'pfft' noise with his mouth. "Yeah, I don't know about that. Guy gets a phone as a gift and he has no problem making himself scarce. He might answer if you call him, but I'm not going to rely on that if you need backup."

I paused. "He has a phone?"

"Yeah, I got it for him, cause he's hard to get ahold of, but he's already ignoring it," he said. "I gave him the numbers of everyone working around here because I figured it would come in handy and he'd never call anyone unless it was an emergency - so never, most likely."

"Oh, that includes your number. I probably should have asked you if it was alright first," he added, but he didn't sound very apologetic.

I recalled something Vergil had said as we were leaving the party the night before. "Expect a call in the morning," he'd said, but I didn't think he'd meant he would call me himself.

I wondered if that's what the missed call that woke me up was.

"Don't worry about it," I murmured, more worried about the empusa than Dante giving out my phone number. "I'm not the one who has a problem with him."

"You're probably right. I should let Lady know too," he said, thoughtfully.

I rolled my eyes at him, but I was sure Lady's reason for disliking him was fairly sound, given what I knew of her history.

But thinking about it a little more, I didn't want to get myself into more trouble with Celaeno either. Nero wouldn't let me down, if he could help it.

"Nevermind that, I'll just wait for Nero outside, okay?" I snorted, ducking into the room with the two chairs to sneak back outside.

Dante gave a low hum and then hung up, leaving me by myself again. I brushed away a bit of glass with my foot, then crawled back through the window.

I fiddled with my phone. Maybe I should have asked Dante what Vergil's number actually was, just to prove my theory. Even if I thought to ask, I really wasn't interested in pissing off Celaeno anymore than I already had. For some reason, the idea of calling a number just to see who answered made me nervous, too, even if it did turn out to be his.

My phone beeped, a text notification from Nico, updating me on their ETA.

They were close, but I had too much time to be trapped in my own head.

Time ticked by for about eight minutes while I imagined all kinds of horrible scenarios. I thought I could hear the scratching of thousands of claws writhing in the ground underneath my feet. I worried that there was no way to please Celaeno, as things currently stood. I wondered about whoever had come here before, only to be dragged into the empusa nest after being killed. The ants were mainly interested in human blood, to gift to their queen, but the smell still lingered in the house in the corpse's absence. Out of anxiety, I went back to muffling the scent with my sweater.

When they finally arrived, I'd had enough of trying to cope with the silence without Celaeno. Thank god neither of my coworkers were particularly quiet.

I heard the rental car pull up, and leaned around the corner of the building to see. I waved my hands at them to get their attention.

The rental car was bland, tan, and safe. As the two of them got closer, I realized Nero had crammed his sword's case into the back seat. His gun was neatly tucked into its holster as he retrieved the sword, and remained there even as he jumped the fence, clearing it with more ease than I ever could alone.

Nico leaned against the fence, waving at me, but it was clear that this was as far as she went.

"Sorry to call you out here on New Year's Day," I said as I moved away from the window for him to crawl inside.

"You won't catch me complaining," said Nero, putting his hands up. "But if anything happens to me, Dante's gonna get an earful from Kyrie."

Nero produced something from his pocket, a metal gauntlet which he clamped over his own hand, snapping it into place with a satisfying pop of his knuckles.

"What's that?" I asked, blinking as I watched him.

He looked surprised for a moment, like he'd forgotten it was unusual. "This? This is called a Devil Breaker. Nico made 'em for me special back when, uh. When I lost my arm."

A red flag went off in my head, but that didn't stop me from opening my mouth as soon as we had entered through the window and were standing in the dining room. "...What do you mean you lost your arm?"

I really didn't want to pry into something so obviously private, but I was pretty sure what I could see of both of his arms were flesh and blood.

He looked a little conflicted as he started to answer, a response I should have expected. "Um, I thought Kyrie told you about this already? That was back a year or so ago when Vergil stole the Yamato back from me."

I stopped near the living room entryway, lowering my voice as I tore my gaze from the entrance to him. "She didn't tell me your own father cut your arm off. Even if he didn't know you then, that's not exactly a convincing argument."

He looked a little embarrassed. "I got better," he started to say, but he finally set his eyes on the nest as he shuffled around me, and went silent.

"Don't worry about all that," he said instead, after a moment. "It's all complicated, but we're kind of dealing with it in our own weird ways. Vergil is a real bastard, but after growing up in an orphanage, somehow it's kind of nice knowing that I have a father. I guess."

Whoops, whoops whoops.

Vergil might have needed to patch things up with his family, but I really needed to keep my mouth shut.

"I'm just surprised. This is the first time I've heard about what happened in any detail, I guess," I admitted. I tried not to think about the time I had thought that Vergil's son was not already in his early 20's. Honestly, he was probably more well put together than any of us. "Let's just take care of the infestation, okay?"

I went first into the sloping tunnel, since it was originally my job.

Interestingly, there was no sign of the corpses that made the air in the abandoned house so unbearable. Also interesting, this fact brought me no comfort.

Unlike the beetle-like demons that had made off with Celaeno's dagger, the empusa were quite easy to find, since they strayed so close to the human well more often than not.

As we descended into the nest, they took notice, and they weren't exactly happy about our presence, either.

Nero brandished his sword, a flurry of sparks raining as he revved its unique engine, and I pulled my dagger from its sheath.

I faced no more than two or three straggling empusas, but suddenly I had an even bigger problem.

I couldn't transform.

As the nearest empusa reared up at me, I was frozen. It chattered at me noisily, drawing back its claws, until something snatched out of the air.

I took that as a signal to move, my only choice to run away from the small group I had previously expected not to pose a threat at all.

"What the hell are you doing?" asked Nero, as the empusa that was snatched out of the air was dragged towards him. He had already cut down his own portion of the demons.

Apparently, the phantom limb that pulled it away before it could attack me belonged to him, in the form of glowing, claw-ended wings that extended from his back and shoulders. I didn't have too much time to marvel, given the current situation, and honestly, I was wondering what I thought I was doing too.

"Something's wrong," I said, inching closer to him. There wasn't a lot of room to put more distance between myself and the empusa, even though this entry chamber was more spacious than the hallways leading away from it.

"I can see that," he huffed, pausing mid-sentence to swing at one of the group I'd abandoned.

I was careful to be out of his way, but suddenly his movements were stiffer, and it was obvious that he was trying to avoid me as well. Good for me, but stifling for him.

Besides that, I couldn't quite remember if Nero knew anything about Celaeno or not, but I was certain he had never seen me transform. If Celaeno wouldn't let me defend myself, I decided I wasn't above trying to tell him despite the rule that bound me from revealing her existence.

Frankly, I thought I deserved to be angry, and to be able to ask for help. This was far more serious than whatever Celaeno imagined would happen if anyone knew her.

"Celaeno is mad at me, and I can't transform right now," I explained, the words coming to me with more ease than I expected. "The dagger isn't a very good weapon by itself, without her power."

I felt like I was just in the way, but I didn't need to say that. If he thought so too, he had already noticed.

It was a frustrating dance, avoiding injury but staying within a certain proximity to him that I wasn't in danger of being attacked by the empusa either.

They really were a pathetic match for him, but part of culling an entire nest would mean seeking out and killing its queen, and anything we encountered on the way. The most useful thing I could do in this situation was to hand the job over to Nero entirely. Things might stay this way, until I sorted my mess out.

"Celaeno…" said Nero, planting his sword in the solid earth. "That's the name of the demon you're contracted to? What'd you do to piss her off, anyway?"

I leaned back from him sheepishly, watching the last of the empusa shudder as it fell. I was still thinking of the previous night's incident in question, with more clarity than I wanted to recall it with.

"It's nothing really important," I said, shrugging a little. "We're just having a disagreement right now, I just didn't think it would go this far."

It seemed silly at best, or maybe even inappropriate, to tell him what the reason she was angry with me really was, mostly because the reason was that she was angry that I was getting too close to his father.

Nero nodded, shuffling his feet absently as he wrung the grip of his Red Queen. "I guess you should probably head back then. Not that I mind the company or anything, but I'm not about to let you get hurt down here, if I can help it."

I was a little embarrassed, only because he was obviously trying to be nice. "Yeah, it'll probably be easier on you if I just go. Thanks for coming to back me up."

He pulled his sword back out of the ground and swung it over his shoulder.

"Don't let anyone give you a hard time for having to back out, okay? If you can't protect yourself, you've got to do what's best for you," he added, nodding at me. "Don't feel bad about it."

I smiled weakly back at him, but even though the kind words didn't go unappreciated, I was worried about more than just the job.

Folding my arms, I turned away to climb back out of the entrance. The only way to go was up and out.

How could Celaeno do this to me? I entertained the idea of her feeling just as betrayed as I did, but brushed it away quickly. I considered my life to be a little more important than a broken promise.

It was in her best interest to keep me alive - purposely endangering me to end the first half of our bargain was a direct violation of the contract too. Maybe this was what I should have expected, for trusting a demon, but I didn't want to believe that. Celaeno had been good to me, even if she was being immature at best in the current situation.

I passed the empty, clearly handmade dog house quickly, once I was outside, my mind going blank when I heard the sound of agitated insects buzzing from within. My skin prickled in grim anticipation that I would have the bad luck to be stung by a bee after all of this. That was the last thing I needed, I thought as I jumped the fence again.

Only then did I register Nico waving at me as she stood up from leaning against the rental car, clicking her tongue like she had been trying to get my attention for a while.

"Earth to Medea," she sang, waving her hand in my face even though I had already spotted her. "You hear me?"

I shook my head, brushing her hand away with a small laugh. "Sorry, I was thinking about something. What did you say?"

"Yeah, no kidding!" she said, rolling her eyes with a smile. "I asked you what's going on- where's Nero?"

I glanced back at the house. "He's fine. I came back because I can't transform, and I'm not helping anyone by putting myself in danger."

Nico tilted her head, blinking at me. "Huh. Any clue what's going on?"

I shrugged again. "Yeah, I know why she's mad at me, but she's not usually like this."

Nico gave me a small nod. "Nothing a little communication can't fix. You'll be back out there once you get your shit together again, right?"

I nodded back, but I needed some advice on the subject that only one person could give.

"I'm gonna give Dante a call and let him know what's going on. I'm not too sure how long I'm going to be out of commission," I said, starting in the direction of my car.

"See you around, I guess," she offered. "Hit us up when you're feeling better. We're gonna go drinking before we leave town. You in?"

The invitation surprised me. I didn't think we connected that well, being older than the three of them, but Nico seemed like she was friendly with just about everyone.

Then, I remembered Vergil's words the night before. I wasn't going to let it happen again.

"Only if by 'drinks' you mean coffee. I'm trying to avoid a repeat of last night," I sighed. "I thought Kyrie didn't drink, anyway?"

"I can't blame you for that; you looked pretty miserable. And no, but she likes to come with us. One of us has to be responsible once in a while, right?" she laughed. "Let us know when you want to get coffee, then?"

I laughed a little at her persistence, and agreed to give her a text. Really, I had more important things on my mind, but her energy was refreshing.

At that point, I got in my car and headed directly for Devil May Cry. I needed to talk to Dante, but with any luck, I would find Vergil there too. He was the only one with any real experience with a contract - even if his were totally different from mine.

I arrived just in time to find both of them standing in front of the shop. Both of them were putting their swords away, and both looked worn out, sweat beading on their furrowed brows.

Rolling my window down as I parked beside them, I leaned out the window. "Is this a bad time?"

Vergil's Yamato glinted in the sun as he sheathed it, then he stomped inside. Clearly I had interrupted something, but his frustration was with Dante.

"I'm going to use your shower," he said, shutting the door behind him.

I didn't bother hiding my surprise from Dante, who slid over to me like Vergil hadn't even spoken.

"We were just wrapping up. This arena isn't exactly big enough for us to go all out, so this is actually a pretty good time," said Dante, snorting. He peered down at me, fussing with his ponytail. "Aren't you supposed to be balls deep in an anthill right about now?"

"God, I hope not," I said, rolling my eyes. I opened my door to get out as Dante untied his hair and stepped out of my way. "But that's sort of why I'm here."

I shut the door, then turned to lean against the car with a sigh. "So… Celaeno isn't talking to me right now, and I don't think I'll be able to work for a little while until I deal with her."

He scratched at his stubble thoughtfully. "You would have called me, if that were all."

Yeah.

Arms crossed, I tilted my head in the shop's direction. "Well… it's just that he's the only one I know with any knowledge of demonic contracts. I thought you said you didn't know where he was?"

"I told you, if he wants to hide, he's pretty good at staying hidden. Maybe you should ask him what he's been up to, if you wanna know," he said, shrugging. So he'd lied, but it sounded like Vergil had asked him to cover for him. Weird.

"I just came to get some advice," I said, rubbing my neck. "You gave him my number, but I don't have his, so it's not like I could call him myself…"

Dante paused, then opened his palm. "Give me your phone, I'll add it for you. Trust me, he won't mind."

Reluctantly, I passed him the phone, setting it up so he could type the number in. He squinted at the keys slightly as he typed, frowning as he fiddled with it.

"You didn't ask for my advice, but I'm going to give it to you anyway," he said, passing the phone back to me. "You should learn to not have to rely on her power alone."

He batted the back of his fist against my shoulder gently, very much coming down from an adrenaline high. "You've got the muscle for it - it's just a matter of how you use it."

I shoved his hand away, snorting. "I'm a little more fragile than you are. Without Celaeno, I would have been in trouble a long time ago."

"Sure, but it's not like most of us don't have at least a little human in us," he said, a relenting shrug. "My brother has been at this longer than I have, but even though we were both pretty young when we realized we were a little different from the neighbor kids, most of my powers didn't start showing up until I was older. And you know Lady - a human can do more than you do now without any power at all."

I couldn't imagine myself pulling off half the stunts that Lady did, but I really doubted it would kill me to learn how to actually fight. At least, I hoped it wouldn't. Nevermind that I'd never even held a gun before. I'd declined many weekend hunting trips with Jay's father, and now I was hunting far more impressive targets than he ever had. Shame.

"Yeah, I probably should look into it," I hummed. Maybe Lady wouldn't mind giving me some pointers.

Dante nodded a bit, then started for the door. "You can come in, but he might be a while. I've never met anyone who liked standing under running water as much as he does."

He opened the door, but paused to grin as I followed him through the threshold of the building. "Of course, I bet he'd come out sooner if I cut off the hot water before he uses it all."

My brain conjured up the image of Vergil, flying out of the back rooms, fully transformed and with his sword pointed directly at Dante.

"I'll just wait," I said quickly. "I don't need to antagonize him to get his attention."

Dante chuckled, making his way to his desk as I took a seat on the couch nearby.

It felt a lot like how I had first met the two of them. Then, I had been hoping for Dante to answer my call, but now it really was Vergil I was waiting to see, with purpose. Both times, I ended up waiting on the couch, while Dante went about his day.

The air in the office was a little chilly, though it was colder still outside. A haze seemed to fall across the room from the steam that played at the air from under the bathroom door. It did little against the cold, but it carried a clean, pleasant smell of warmth. Very welcome, after the interesting combination of scents I'd encountered in the empusa lair.

Settled on the leather couch, I was starting to feel a little drowsy.

Without even noticing at first, a hand on my shoulder nudged me awake.

I thought it was Dante at first, but when I opened my eyes, I was staring up at Vergil.

Since he was freshly showered, I had to dart my eyes between him and Dante. They almost looked identical, like this. Dante's hair was longer and shaggier, and Vergil was a little leaner, but it did make me have to think twice, especially since they were dressed similarly in long sleeved shirts, denim and leather pants respectively.

Seeming to sense what I was thinking, Vergil stood up a little more stiffly and brushed his hair back. Messier than its usual shape, but he no longer looked like someone had sprayed Dante down with a garden hose.

"You wanted to talk to me?" he asked as I got to my feet.

I mentally prodded at Celaeno again, to the same result as before, then nodded.

"Yeah, I just need a little advice, and then I'll head back home," I said, feeling a little groggy from falling asleep. I wondered how long it had been since I drifted off.

Vergil took a step towards the front of the store, then looked sideways at Dante.

"Would you like to talk on the roof?" he asked, nodding in the direction of the stairs that led to the living area of the building.

I agreed too eagerly, and followed him to the shop's second floor, and then to a small metal hatch in the ceiling.

As he opened it, he stretched past me to shove the hatch open, then lowered the stepladder up to the roof. I could smell the cold air mingling with the scent of soap and shampoo, and I tried not to look him in the eye as he offered me to go first. I let him go ahead of me, then climbed up behind him.


	14. Chapter 14

As we stood on the roof of the shop, and he closed the hatch again, I looked around.

It was cold, but I would be fine with my jacket. The roof was sparsely decorated, with only a couple of patio chairs, a small table, beside which lay a folded umbrella that was probably supposed to go in the hole in the middle of the table for shade.

I decided to take a seat on one of the faded chairs, and a moment later, he stood back up and took the opposite chair.

I somehow felt nervous, but not directly because of him. It was the fact that Celaeno was specifically upset because of him, and here I was, running to him for help. I felt like it was wrong of me to ask for anyone's help in this matter, since I had caused it, and I didn't even know if anyone else could help. Just talking about my problems shouldn't have been a burden, but I sure felt like one anyway.

Nevermind the emotional baggage I'd unloaded on him the night before.

"What did you want to discuss?" he asked, when I didn't say anything.

"Um, it's about Celaeno," I said, deciding to be direct. "She's not exactly happy with me right now, so… I can't transform. Which is why I'm here right now, instead of helping Nero out."

He winced a little as he listened, and I thought it might have been at the mention of his son. Even though I had met all of them, he still had a lot to think about, I figured. "So you've come to me because of my experience with my own contracts?"

I nodded. "Even if you don't know anything about mine, I don't know anyone else with even a fraction of your experience. The contract isn't broken, because the mark is still there and I can still feel her, but she's just not listening to me."

He leaned back in his seat, resting his head in one hand and looking in the vague direction of the sun while he thought. "And this began this morning?"

I glanced back at him reluctantly. "It might have started last night, but I couldn't hear her even if she was there, because of the alcohol. That's part of why I want to quit drinking for good."

"If your contract hasn't ended… I suppose you would have to work it out with her yourself," he said, thinking. "Didn't you tell me last night that she couldn't end the contract?"

Looking at my hands, I began wringing them absently. I shrugged. "Yeah, not if she wants to reap the rewards of the second stage of our contract. It requires patience from both of us, for this to work."

"And do you know what it was that angered her?"

I squeezed one eye shut as I looked at him again, this time almost looking through him. "Umm… it's because of last night. Not because of the drinks, though. I'm sure I told you too much, and… like I said, she's cautious around you at best."

That gave him a bit of a pause as he glanced at me, but he didn't seem surprised. Maybe he'd guessed already. Either way, I hastily looked at my hands again, then tugged my jacket a bit closer.

"I can see how that might upset her, judging by everything you said," he murmured. "What's done is done, as usual."

For a moment, he seemed to be thinking about something else, but I felt myself zoning out before I realized it. It wasn't even that I was thinking about anything particularly interesting, but I didn't know what to say. Celaeno was the unreasonable one, but the fact remained that I was still guilty, if a person could be considered guilty of enjoying someone else's company.

"I guess there's one other thing you might be able to help me with," I said, thinking about what Dante had suggested earlier. "Actually, Dante is the one who came up with it, but…"

He lifted his head curiously at that. "And what is that?"

"Well, like I said, it was his idea, but I agree," I said, unsure why I felt the need to repeat myself. "I only know how to defend myself when I'm wearing Celaeno's armor, but if something like this ever happens again, I can't be defenseless. I don't really know how to use my knife the way it was intended to be used, as a weapon. I was wondering, I guess, if you could give me a few tips?"

"You won't like my answer," he started, frowning. "But you shouldn't learn from me, or my brother, for that matter. I can give you advice on your technique, but both my brother and I can afford to be far more reckless than you can, and I admit that this recklessness shows, even in myself."

Recklessness? I realized I had never seen Dante in action before, but I had seen a brief demonstration of Vergil's skills. It didn't seem that reckless to me.

"Because I'm human?" I asked, only a little disappointment rising in my tone. "I know my limits - I'm careful. If I had more technical skill, I would probably be safer. And I agree with Dante, I can't always rely on Celaeno's protection, or her magic."

It didn't surprise me that he was turning me down. The first thing that Dante had warned me of when I first met them was that Vergil hated humans. From his weary tone, I didn't get the impression that he was being condescending. Instead, he almost sounded concerned.

"I don't mean to insult you," he said, nostrils flaring slightly. His mouth opened to continue speaking, but he closed it again, stopping himself. Apparently, he'd changed his mind about something.

"I can give you very basic advice," he said, pursing his lips. "But as you probably could guess, I have less practice with a dagger than other arms, and I can only teach you how to fight a human opponent. I'll put together some resources for you while I'm at it, that will take time."

I smiled softly. I didn't know what had changed his mind, but I was all for it.

"Thanks. Dante says you have my number already, so give me a call whenever you're ready," I said, sitting up straighter.

Vergil rolled his eyes. "He told you himself? I didn't think it was worth mentioning, since I only have this phone for work."

"Didn't you call me this morning?" I hummed, teasing him just a little. The number from the call that had woken me that morning had matched the one that Dante read to me.

He side-eyed me suspiciously. "Did he give you my number? I apologize for his behaviour."

I shook my head just a little. "I actually asked him for it, but don't worry - I'm a pretty low-maintenance phone contact, since my phone still has minutes."

He rubbed his neck absently, scoffing. "I would have preferred that you ask me directly, but I wouldn't have refused, so I suppose this works out."

Getting to my feet, I smiled at him, this one genuine. "Well… I guess I'll see what I can do about Celaeno. Let me know when you find something, okay?"

He stood up after me, shuffling towards the hatch that led back into the shop.

"I will," he agreed, softly.

The air was becoming just a little too chilly for my tastes, but he didn't seem fazed, standing in just a long sleeved shirt, sans coat. I wanted to get inside quickly, if I could help it, or at the very least I wished we had been sitting closer together.

And besides that, something in his tone had sort of surprised me; his voice had trailed off, as if he planned again to say more, but hadn't come up with anything else to say when the time came.

I knew he wasn't very talkative, and he usually gave back what I put out. I respected that. If he wanted to talk, I knew he wouldn't shy away from conversation. Maybe he didn't know how to keep the ball rolling.

I was already climbing back down from the roof by the time I had realized I could have saved the conversation myself, but too much time had passed already.

This time, he descended behind me.

A nagging feeling set in the back of my head, reminding me of my current situation with Celaeno, the whole reason I had even come here. As angry with her as I was, I wanted to know that everything was alright with us. I missed her, I would even forgive her if we could talk things out.

Vergil walked me back to the front of the shop. I hoped our silence was a comfortable one.

"Thanks again," I murmured to him, lingering at the door.

Before leaving, I also turned my attention to Dante. "I'll let you know once things have smoothed over."

"Sure thing," hummed Dante, not looking up from his literature. "You give me a call, or just show up - there's no need for formalities here. Right, Verge?"

I didn't hear Vergil's reply, as I ducked out before the two of them could start something again, giving a quick goodbye to both of them.

Once I was in my car again, I adjusted my mirror with a huff of frustration at myself for simply running away from them.

Nero was right: there was no point in putting my life in danger, but an awkward social situation didn't warrant a full retreat. At least I wasn't suffering alone, in that matter.

I suspected Dante had only teased so openly because doing so with everyone at the party would have made a scene. He wasn't being subtle, but he wasn't purposely trying to humiliate us either.

I didn't spare a thought to feeling flattered or embarrassed, having more important issues on my mind.

I would probably do some stretches, then go for a run to try and clear my head, but I doubted anything would help me, short of finally getting Celaeno to pay attention. In the same vein, she probably wouldn't come back without being given some space.

In fact, it wasn't until late that evening that she finally did return to me, while I was reheating two day old leftovers for dinner.

She gave out a signal, like she was shuddering and clearing her throat at once.

The fork I was using to test the warmth of my dinner fell out of my hand with a metallic twang.

I snorted, frustrated as I picked up the silverware, but I also felt unsure how to express my annoyance with her yet. There was so much I felt like I could say about the whole thing that I didn't know how to articulate it.

Fortunately, she was the first to speak.

"What have you been up to since I've been out?" she asked.

A scowl crossed my face before I had a chance to stop it.

"You don't know?" I snapped, just a little impulsively. The casual way she asked, like I hadn't been agonizing over this all day really irritated me. "You've been watching me with silent judgement all day, while I could have gotten myself killed on the job."

I was too upset to hide that I was talking to myself as I shut the microwave door. It didn't matter, there was no one wot impress - hiding it even in private seemed stupid suddenly.

"No, I didn't know," she pushed back, a bit too defensive. "When I withdraw that completely, I can't hear or see anything around you. Did you die?"

I frowned. "No. The empusa that attacked me was killed by Nero before anything happened."

"And what excuse did you give him?"

"No excuses… I told him that I couldn't use your power," I answered.

"So I didn't leave you totally defenseless," she said, to my dissatisfaction.

"I don't care, this can't happen again," I said, sighing sharply. "I want to work this out with you, Celaeno. Can we talk about this fairly?"

She released some of her tension, cooling down, or maybe she was exasperated, I couldn't tell.

"It's best for both of us if we figure this problem out together," she said finally. "But you broke our agreement first, Medea, don't forget that."

"Yeah, I did," I said somberly. "I should have more respect for our agreement, but I know even you must think that my life is more valuable than this. If you want my body, this has to work."

That was probably the most important reason for me to be upset with her, but it wasn't the only thing on my mind.

"And I don't know, I don't like that I can't always be honest with other people about myself," I added, wishing I could be more direct. "I told someone else about myself- my history, because it's important to me, and I wanted to be able to share that with someone. The problem is that you changed my life so completely that I can't talk about it and avoid talking about you, too."

"You are very lucky the police never came knocking after you left town. How many people do you plan to tell that you committed a murder?" she sighed.

I gave a small shrug of my shoulders. "That's part of why I wanted to tell him. I didn't make a contract with your just for power - I needed your help. How many times have I told you you saved me?"

I felt her relent just a little, but I didn't think that changed her feelings.

"It's true that I witnessed most of that night," she said, hesitating. "But Vergil isn't just a treat to me because he knows me. You heard what he did from his own mouth. His power is immense - smothering. Dante radiates the same kind of power, but his older brother is far more ambitious."

Knowing what I did about Vergil did change my opinion of him, but I could feel something else from him too. I believed there was a real desire to fix things, but I doubted he could truly make up for all the lives that had been stolen by him. I had felt the full extent of his power, that time when we worked together - when he transformed into that icy, demonic form. It had been muffled before, but when he changed, it was like setting off a bomb.

"Yeah… it's intense," I admitted. "But Vergil isn't interested in using you - he's curious about you. Maybe it's just a hobby?"

"That's not the part that worries me," she insisted. "You know what he's capable of. You saw the news and the aftermath of that demonic tree. I never want either of us to be swept away by something like that. If he really did eat the qliphoth fruit, just like the former demon king…"

I paused. "If that's how Mundus became king, and as Urizen, he was called a king as well, does the title still belong to him?"

Celaeno uttered a growl at my disorganized thoughts, but she considered it for a moment. "I'm… a little out of the loop. It will probably depend on who you ask… The blood of Sparda is precious, but a son of Sparda, whose power could potentially rival that of Mundus… I would be surprised if he hasn't painted an even bigger target on his back. All the more reason to stay away from him."

With a sigh, I sat down at the table with my reheated lasagna. I scooped a bite out with my fork, but didn't eat just yet.

"He knows how to take care of himself," I said, thinking about earlier. He did, but without Celaeno, I didn't know anything. "I went to the shop earlier, and Dante suggested that I learn how to fight properly, just in case… anything like this ever happened again."

"I wouldn't count on anything happening, but it's probably a good skill to be able to fall back on," said Celaeno.

She didn't indicate as much, but I wondered if the suggestion of future conflict between us irritated her.

"While I was there, I asked Vergil to be the one to teach me," I added. "I don't want to hide anything from you."

For a moment, she said nothing. I worried that she had gone silent again, so I just ate my leftovers in silence until she spoke again.

"Couldn't you have asked that other human? What was her name?"

"Lady?"

"Couldn't you have asked for her help instead?"

I set my fork down again. "I planned to, if Vergil turned me down, but I didn't entirely expect him to agree to it. I still think it'll be good for me, no matter who's teaching me."

"I think so too," she murmured. "But I wish it didn't have to involve him."

"Just because I hang out with people you don't like doesn't mean I'm not looking out for you," I said softly. "I would never endanger either of us on purpose. But I should be allowed to make calls like this - who I associate with - myself."

Celaeno muttered a note of affirmation, finally surrendering.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you earlier," she said. "You're right - your life is more important than my fears. I know you would never try to hurt me. I know you better than that."

A smile broke out on my face. It was a satisfying win, but I knew she cared for me. It was a funny thing, knowing I was loved by a demon, but she brought me comfort, and just the right amount of chaos to my life. I knew I didn't have enough true friends, but more often than not, she proved to be a good one. If she promised something, I could trust that she would keep it.

"Thanks, Celaeno," I murmured. "Trust me when I say I know what a bad situation looks like. I'll stay out of trouble."

She scoffed. "We'll see about that. I know you'll claw your way back out of any trouble you manage to find anyway."

"Hey - things will be better once I can make more effective use of your dagger. Trust me," I laughed.

"I do trust you," she said. And I believed her.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry I'm not as talkative here as I am on AO3! But I see every favorite, subscribe, and comment, and I really appreciate every one. Thank you to everyone who's kept up with the story so far. It's finally starting to feel like I've gotten my footing, so I hope things will only get better from here.**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Hi here's an update from April I forgot to upload here, sorry!**

* * *

New Year's had come and gone. I took Nico up on her offer to get coffee with Nero and Kyrie, and once they turned in the rental, I took them back to the airport. I really was surprised that a bunch of kids wanted to spend time catching up with me, but I couldn't complain. Everyone was starting to feel like extended family to me.

As much as that surprised me, even more, two weeks later I got a call from Vergil. This time, the caller ID was plainly marked, so I answered.

"Do you have any plans this evening?" he asked, almost as soon as I picked up.

"What?" I asked, swallowing my heart that had jumped up into my throat. It was a wonder that I didn't hit my head as I stood up from peering into my milkless fridge to listen better.

"I mean, for combat practice," he said, sounding as though he were scolding himself. "I've been researching techniques using a dagger as your main line of defense, just as a refresher, so I know how to explain it better. I know of a place where we can practice away from other humans, but it isn't closeby. Meet me at my apartment, and I'll take us there."

I wondered where we were going, if we would need the Yamato to get there. It was exciting, even though I didn't care for how disoriented the portals made me feel - probably because we were technically passing through the demon realm each time we stepped through, if just for a brief moment.

"Yeah, I'm not busy," I said, shutting the fridge with a padded thud.

"Good. It may be cold, so bring a jacket," he advised. "I'll see you then."

The call ended, and my anticipation of our meeting made the rest of the day go by in a blur. I wore a comfy pair of yoga pants and a loose tank top for practice, but threw my coat over it as well, unsure of what sort of weather to expect despite Vergil's advice. I decided against wearing anything to cover Celaeno's mark on my neck. Though it wasn't quite comfortable, it would be easier to go without it if I was expecting a workout.

The clashing colors of the apartment Vergil lived in seemed to match each other a little better in the dimming sun. I hopped out of my car, and he greeted me at the door. I took notice of the potted plants sitting in the sun on the concrete slab that was his doorstep. The soil was dark and damp, and he held something in his hand, but it could hardly be mistaken for a watering can.

"I want to have you practice basic techniques today, but I will not be demonstrating against you using the Yamato," he explained, gesturing to the wooden sword under his arm. "Ideally, we won't be making contact at all today, but I want to get used to the feeling of the practice sword."

"I was looking at the plants," I admitted. "I thought your family made sure you swore off of botany."

He wrinkled his nose in response, averting his eyes down to the plants at his feet. "These were gifts from my elderly neighbor. She said it was for luck in the new year and wouldn't take no for an answer. I _have _been watering them."

_"She sounds like a very sweet woman," _said Celaeno, and I echoed her out loud.

Vergil rolled his eyes. "Frustratingly so."

He let me into his apartment, then handed the toy sword to me while he summoned the Yamato.

"Where are we going?" I asked, bracing myself as the portal split the air. The demonic energy that spilled out of it was tangible.

"Red Grave City," he said. "The most populated areas of town have been rebuilt by now, but the outskirts are much the same. There will be plenty of space between us and the current residents."

His answer surprised me. I wouldn't expect him to go back, as adverse as he was to anything that reminded him of his past.

_"Returning to the scene of the crime?" _Celaeno teased, but I knew even she was afraid of anything as powerful as the force that had leveled the city. I felt a little bit glad he couldn't hear her.

Despite my surprise, I couldn't deny my curiosity. I had seen the aerial photos on the news - with and without Vergil's Qliphoth. The damage was not insignificant. I wanted to see how life was faring in the slowly recovering city.

I passed in front of him through the portal, crossing the threshold. As the nausea from the portal's pressure subsided, I found myself standing in an overgrown dirt path. There wasn't much to see in the immediate area, so I turned my attention to the city as he followed behind me, and the portal was closed.

Where the afternoon had just been starting to tint the sky orange at Vergil's apartment, here the sun was already starting to set. The city wasn't especially close - a long drive from Dante's shop on a good day, but I suspected that even with the time we saved, there still wouldn't be too much time to practice today. The downtown area was easily visible from here, and there was construction equipment scattered across it. It was late enough that all of the equipment was currently abandoned, but the city was a dandelion blooming in a crack in the pavement. It was trying to heal.

Behind us was yet more crumbling architecture, a long wall surrounding a collapsed mansion, from what I could see. A home that had been abandoned for longer than the crisis in Red Grave nearly two years ago, by the look of it.

"We should get started, before it gets dark," said Vergil, his attention deliberately on me, as if he was trying to ignore his current surroundings. His eyes seemed reluctant as he turned away, starting down the path and up the hill towards the mansion's crooked gates.

_"I don't know how long he expects this practice to run, at this rate," _muttered Celaeno.

I rolled my shoulders in a mimicry of a shrug that was intended only for the voice in my head as I followed him.

In the ruined yard, the dagger came out of my coat pocket, and I passed the wooden sword back to him while he removed his coat.

"It's not likely that I'll actually need this today," he admitted. "For now, I want you to focus on my stance."

He stood with his legs apart, one knee facing the front as he drew his sword back behind him.

I nodded as I watched him. He began to explain various ways to avoid straining my knees. I was listening, and a moment later I even copied his movements just to prove to myself that I understood, but I was also thinking as I watched him that I had never noticed before how long his legs were.

He had advised me to bring a jacket, so I had, but he had discarded his coat for better demonstration already. The few other times I'd seen him without it, I certainly hadn't been paying attention to his looks. Now I was forced to pay attention to the way he held himself, trying to imitate him even though he insisted I didn't need to. I told him it was important for me to follow along, regardless.

Celaeno groaned as I studied his slender legs, and his bare arms, but I could hear her holding back a teasing laugh. Why couldn't I just focus? I was glad this was all we really had time for.

* * *

The sun finally sank too far in the sky to see anymore, by the time we were warmed up.

"We'll start earlier, next time," said Vergil, tucking the wooden sword under his arm. "I chose later in the day, hoping to avoid the denizens of the city as much as possible, but I'm surprised to see enough of this place standing that it still hides us from view. The distance should be enough, besides."

I always carried my clip on light with me in my pocket, but I could only agree that it wouldn't be enough to see by.

The half ruined building behind us had piqued my curiosity, in this idle moment. It was a welcome distraction from looking at him, and I had only just become distracted enough to really look at it.

It seemed to have taken a fair amount of damage from the Qliphoth's roots, which didn't surprise me, given how massive the tree had been in the footage I'd seen. I wondered if the roots would really reach this far out of the town, instead of deeper in the earth. There was also the possibility that it had been in disrepair for longer than that.

_"Be careful, this place reeks of demonic energy," _said Celaeno.

I pointed Celaeno's Gale at the direction of the mansion. There didn't seem to be anything nearby, but she was right. There had been something squatting here, until recently.

Vergil stepped closer to me. I couldn't see more than his shadow, since he wasn't facing my light, but he sounded his distaste. "There were a multitude of chimaeras living here. I disposed of them just this morning."

"That's probably what I'm sensing," I said, though I wasn't sure. It seemed like they had been here for a long time, if that's all it was. "Where did you find this place?"

He shifted his weight at my question, prompting me to actually look at him properly. "This is the house I lived in when I was very young. It was an inconvenient distance from civilization, and there's plenty of open space. Perfect for our needs."

He kept elaborating, but I had already honed in on the information I wanted. I took a few steps towards the mansion. "You lived _here? _"

"Not for an extraordinary amount of time," he said. "But I was born here, and lived here for nearly a decade."

"But still… this place must have been gorgeous back then," I said, still drifting slowly towards it. "Did you family… have a lot of money?"

"Well, it wasn't my family's house," he admitted. "I don't remember very much of my father, but the old man whom the house actually belonged to was a friend of his. Perhaps he took us and our mother in as a favor to him."

"Sort of a Secret Garden situation, then," I hummed. I stood near the gaping hole that was now the entrance, but now I was afraid to go any farther.

"Inasmuch that an old philanthropist allowed me to live in his mansion, yes," he snorted. "I never found out the relation between the old man and my father, but in his will he left all of his money to our mother."

I paused to look at him again. That sort of surprised me, since he and his brother lived relatively humble lives. Generously.

"Of course, he was killed in the same attack as my mother," he mumbled. "So the money was meant to be divided evenly between my brother and me once we turned eighteen, apparently."

"Is that what ended up happening?" I asked, detecting the more than modest amount of animosity.

"Sort of. Dante eventually claimed his half of the money. I believe my half is in some sort of nest egg account, waiting for me to claim it, but it would be a little more trouble than it's worth to claim it. I have no identification, currently, so remedying that would take time and money, and I don't have any real need for it."

I could understand that, but to me it seemed to almost be a waste. I knew it was better to have access to money you didn't need than to need money. From what I understood, Dante had rebuilt and remodeled his shop a few times. I wouldn't have been surprised if his half had already been depleted.

"There are a lot of memories in these walls," he said, his heart clearly not in discussing the subject of the money. "The most vivid ones aren't pleasant, as you can imagine."

I really had no idea, but the way he spoke, I wished I understood.

_"Medea…" _Celaeno warned as my pulse quickened, but her words had no bite.

I was sure that there were no words that could comfort him, so instead I stood by him quietly.

He seemed to be deep in thought, and I thought he might decide he'd had enough and say it was time to leave at any second. Instead, he wandered into the splintered and battered entryway. I got the impression that it wasn't entirely structurally sound, but I followed as he stood in the probably once cramped ex-doorway. There was a fireplace, remarkably still intact, and above it a ruined painting illuminated by my little light. I couldn't make out any of the figures in the painting in the dark, as it was a little too damaged to really see without closer inspection, but I could count the shapes I saw. Four of them, it looked like.

A family.

He reached out and touched the bannister of the short stairs that led out of the room nearby, releasing a satisfied sigh.

After a long moment, he turned to me.

"This place brings out a lot of fairly complicated emotions in me. I think I would prefer not to spend much more time here than we have to," he said, gesturing to the gloomy estate around us.

"That's alright with me," I said, somehow feeling responsible for his mental fatigue. Perhaps because I was the one who had first gone near the mansion. "We should probably head back anyway."

With a nod, the practice sword changed hands again and a new portal was ripped open. This time, on the other side was his apartment. It was closed behind us with a flash of blue light.

I stood wistfully in his living room, palming at the sides of my coat without much thought.

"Apart from that… I was curious," he said, his voice suddenly becoming serious even though he was clearly trying to seem casual. A tone of honesty that startled me before I even guessed what he might ask me next. "I might have ruined the mood myself already, but… would you like to go to dinner with me sometime?"

"What?" I croaked, my throat suddenly hoarse.

"Dante didn't put me up to this," he added, mistaking my disbelief for suspicion. It did cross my mind, but I really doubted that he would listen to anything his brother instructed him to do, especially if it was a dare. "He _did _try to goad me into asking you, but I'm asking you on my own terms, because _I _wanted to."

I was still pretty surprised. I mean, I wasn't under the impression that either of the sons of Sparda were even a little interested in dating. Frankly, I shouldn't have been surprised by that. Everyone had their own needs, and even they were human. I just didn't think their human needs covered a love life.

"Yeah, sure," I said. "I mean, I'd love to… As long as you're not just looking for a distraction."

He gave a small scoff. "A little, but that's just added incentive to say what was already on my mind. We can come up with the specifics later, if you're interested."

This was unfamiliar - I hadn't been on many dates, I had been with Jay for so long.

I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, smiling weakly. "I can call you later. Or tomorrow, actually, it's getting a bit late for that."

He must have been in the same boat as me, emotionally, I realized. What I knew of his past, I sort of doubted he'd had an exceptional amount of time for dating.

I had to kick myself to calm down. It was just one date, but my mind was racing already with a million different worries, and thoughts on his own history, which I didn't _really _feel I needed to know. I really had been cooped up for too long.

He nodded briefly, and even though he wasn't shy, I did detect a certain amount of uncertainty. "You can call me. Or, text me if you have to. It takes a little longer to reply, if you're worried about waking me, I'll still see it."

"I'll call tomorrow," I assured him, giving him a reassuring smile.

After a brief goodbye, I was feeling giddily nervous, and showed myself out. It was only once I was sitting in my car that I had time to process what had just happened.

What _had _just happened?

I asked for his help, and he asked me to dinner. I didn't really know that was something I wanted, but I hadn't even hesitated in agreeing to a date. I put my hands on the steering wheel, then put my face between them against the center with a small laugh. My face felt warm.

_"I hope you know what you're getting into," _said Celaeno, a small huff. It was the first time she'd spoken in a while, surprising me, because I would have thought she would voice her displeasure as soon as possible. Maybe she was giving me time to work through my own feelings.

"I really don't know," I admitted, sitting back up to start the engine finally. "But… I'm excited. I'm going to need some time to think about it, and then I'll call him when I'm ready."

From the honesty in his tone, I knew there was no ill intent behind it, but I was more than aware of his "complicated feelings." I wondered what must be going through his mind for him to ask, or… how long he had been thinking of asking. Maybe it wasn't that deep at all, and I was getting carried away again. In which case, Celaeno would definitely let me know.

_"If things go wrong, we won't be able to run away from this one," _she said, as if she'd been caught up in her own thinking.

Celaeno was suspicious of everyone, but especially situations where she could find herself trapped. I didn't want to be trapped either, but I knew Vergil just well enough to know that he was completely different from how Jay was when we first started dating when I was in college. I didn't know what to expect, but I was going to approach the whole thing as carefully as I could.

All I had to worry about was one little date.


	16. Chapter 16

A call from Dante to show up at the office interrupted my morning jog. It was actually nearly noon, but my late start to the day meant I was still out and about, even now that the sun was beating down at full force. Or, at least, as hard as it _could _in the middle of January.

I cut my jog short to get home and ready to go as fast as I could, but I was met with a new stroke of bad luck once I set out to leave. My car wouldn't start.

I debated what to do about the clicking engine - I had probably just left the lights on by mistake, and the battery needed jumping. I looked around the parking lot at the designated spaces for my neighbors' cars, but none of them were occupied. They were probably in the middle of their own daily routine, so I was stranded.

I called Lady, the only nearby person I knew who owned a car, but I learned that she was busy outside of town, and at that point it would have been faster to just take the bus. As thrilling as that was already, it would be ten minutes before the next one arrived, so I resigned myself to arriving later than expected.

When the bus arrived, it wasn't very crowded, since the morning rush had already ebbed away. Most of the people on board looked like students, with bags either in their laps or still slung over their shoulders, probably on their way to mid morning classes at the local university.

I thought nothing of it as I took a seat, but I had a growing feeling that Celaeno was on high alert.

I pretended to check my phone, opening a new text. "What's wrong?" I wrote.

Celaeno growled, audible only to me. _"Someone on board is carrying a devil arm." _

I frowned at my phone's little screen, erasing the letters I'd written without sending it.

Before I started typing again, I stole a quick glance around the bus. All I saw were a bunch of kids. The various shapes of bags they carried didn't seem likely to be large enough to conceal a devil arm, but I guessed that Celaeno's Gale was on the small and inconspicuous side, compared to others I'd seen. It could be concealed in my coat, and certainly could fit into most of the bags I could see, only about the length of my forearm.

"Where?"

_"Turn your head back to the left," _she said, trying to pinpoint where the source was herself. _"There. Redhead, with the baseball cap." _

I had to admit, the girl didn't look very suspicious. Her red hair was fine, and fell over her shoulders in thin waves. Her head was down while she looked at her own phone, so between her hat and large glasses, most of her face was obscured from the angle I was seeing her from. Over her shoulder was an oddly shaped bag, wider at one end, sort of like a guitar case. I might have thought it was for some kind of instrument, if I didn't recognize the logo on the side, which belonged to some brand of expensive camera equipment. She was certainly young enough to be some kind of visual arts student.

Tapping away at my little phone again, I wrote. "Is she human?"

Celaeno hummed in confirmation. _"Definitely, but whatever is in her bag, it's dangerous. Don't make eye contact with her, I don't want to find out what she's hiding if I don't have to." _

I had to agree there. Before I could type out a reply, though, the girl looked up at the scenery outside as the bus lurched. We were slowing down.

We were pretty close to the nearby campus, so I wasn't shocked when a number of the students, including her, filed to the front of the bus and got off at the stop.

I sucked my knees in even though there was plenty of room in the aisle, and she took no notice of me as she passed.

Maybe I was lucky, if her devil arm was anything like mine, she probably would have seen right through me. I thought maybe Celaeno's paranoia might be rubbing off on me, since I didn't really know what it was _I _was worried about.

But it wasn't normal, or common, to meet someone else carrying around something like that.

Dante's shop wasn't far off, so the rest of the trip was short and uneventful, but not enough to keep me from feeling slightly guilty for how long it had taken me to show up.

"What do you have for me today?" I asked, throwing the door open.

Dante was mucking around with the billiard table, and only just barely looked up when I entered the room. Trick shooting, by the look of it, but I couldn't say I'd ever actually seen anyone use the table, since I'd been there.

Whatever he was doing, he swore nearly the second his cue hit the ball, apparently having messed up the trick already. It drifted into the farthest pocket away from him, narrowly missing every ball on the table as he stood back up, facing me.

"I'm a lot better at this without an audience," he mumbled, laying the cue across the table lazily to go back to the papers at his desk.

I didn't doubt him, but I didn't know enough to understand what was supposed to have happened.

"So, it's nothing too urgent, but there's gonna be a lot of people around for this job. I was thinking I'd better come along, for uh, crowd control," he said, touching the form he'd likely filled out himself while he was on the phone.

"Crowd control…?" I asked, snorting as Celaeno mirrored my amusement.

"Sure - the university called. They want someone to investigate some happenings on campus. Apparently, there's been a lot of complaints about… unusual sightings and strange sounds, things going bump in the night," he said, scanning the form again with a frown. "Like I said, nothing urgent, but I'm leaving the girls at home to avoid scaring anyone."

The girls. He meant his twin pistols, Ebony and Ivory.

"It sounds like they need an exorcist," I said, rubbing at my choker. "Why hire us?"

"Because they can't call the Ghostbusters in real life, I guess," he said, shaking his head. "Anyway… I took this job because despite what I think of it, I don't know. I kind of have a bad feeling about it. If there _is _anything to be worried about, it can't be good for the kids' education, right? All we have to do is show up, and with any luck, I'm completely wrong."

He started for the door, and I turned to follow him, before I suddenly remembered the state of my transportation. "Oh, right. My car wouldn't start on the way over here, so… I sort of need a ride anyway."

"You're lucky I'm here, then," said Dante. He held the door open for me to let me pass, then hopped down the steps to the street below. He stretched his arms out, as if revving a motorcycle. If I had blinked, I probably would have missed as he summoned a demonic motorcycle directly under him. "Meet Cavaliere."

Its face leered out ahead of it, and its engine was far more like a growl than a purr.

I was more than aware that in the nearly 37 years I'd been alive, I had never been on a motorcycle before. "No helmet?"

"Oh, yeah," he said, thinking. "I think I have one inside, but I don't know if it'll fit you."

_"We already knew he had a big head," _said Celaeno. I laughed.

It took a couple of minutes for Dante to dig the helmet out for me, and he was right - it was just a little big, but better than nothing.

Dante said we weren't in a hurry, but I couldn't shake the idea that we were losing time the longer I sat around. I was glad when we finally started moving.

"Hop on already, Janine, let's go," teased Dante.

We checked in at the university's visitor center, then went on our way.

The section of the university we were meant to investigate was almost as far away from the classrooms as you could get - made up of offices and archives instead. The buildings all had names, in addition to the titles of each department. Some were given by whoever had donated to the funds of each one, others were named after the doner themselves. Wendell Fitch department of Architecture. Happy Trails department of Animal Husbandry, etcetera. Apparently, this was one of the oldest parts of the campus, and though they probably had restored the buildings at least once, the style of the audacious stone buildings showed their age. More and more reason to think the place was haunted, but not by demons.

The most important thing was that we took a look, even if we didn't find anything.

"Supposedly, our beastie was spotted in the architect's building, but there's no telling where it is now. No one seemed to have a solid account of what they saw, except that they had seen _something _," said Dante, pointing at one of the buildings surrounding us. "The staff has been instructed to report in and help us in any way they can, but try not to rattle any of them too much. We might be here a while, though. How about we split up? We'll get this done in about half the time, if there really isn't anything to find."

"What should I do if I _do _find something first?" I asked, pulling the dagger from my coat, prepared to divine for demonic energy myself. "Should I give you a call, or just scream and hope you come running?"

Dante snorted, eyes darting around the sparse courtyard we stood in between the four buildings. "Well, hopefully, you kill it. That's what we're here for."

"I'll take these two buildings, and you take the other two," I offered, gesturing an invisible line between both pairs.

He started to reply, but as he opened his mouth, a scream was heard from one of the buildings that seemed to echo from everywhere in the tiny basin formed by the courtyard. Divisions abandoned, both of us bolted for the door. I could feel that my face was paler than it should have been.

That was because it wasn't the scream of whatever kind of creature we were looking for, or of a human stumbling upon something Unknown that they shouldn't have seen. It was the scream of a human who had gotten a little too close, and found out the hard way.

And it wasn't a long scream, either.

The building had multiple floors, and no elevator. I almost hoped we miraculously found nothing, as we ran, if it weren't for the gruesome implications of finding nothing at all.

We found our scene on the third floor, in a small section of the archives that smelled of fresh blood. The offices we passed looked like some kind of labs, possibly for restoration and storage of old documents, each one fairly small. It wasn't the smell that bothered me, as I rounded the corner sharply and entered the very last door, but the sight itself.

I locked eyes with the severed head of the corpse - a staff member, by the looks of the lanyard fallen beside him. The body still seized, and as soon as Dante entered the room behind me, he pulled me aside, covering my eyes when he sensed my discomfort.

_"Wait," _said Celaeno, somehow meant to comfort me.

"What happened here?" I heard Dante ask someone as he released me.

I realized at that moment, that besides the corpse, the two of us weren't alone in the room.

A new voice spoke up as I pushed past him to see. Hiding didn't help me, even as I tried to avert my eyes from the scene.

"I took care of our demon problem," said the new voice, sounding somehow slippery. "Don't mind the mess, it's just a facade."

Looking closely at the person speaking, I reached for the lightswitch, the light from the windows not enough to see their face clearly. As light flooded the room, I realized the voice belonged to the girl from the bus ride to the shop. She had gotten off at the same stop as the other students. Now, though she was still trembling, whatever instrument Celaeno had warned me of was nowhere to be seen - apparently we had missed the action by a fair margin.

Dante's posture suddenly shifted, apparently relaxing from a very tense position, though he hadn't dropped his guard. He stepped forward, nudging the body with his boot with a disgusted sneer.

Instantly, the "facade" was dropped. The body, and its head, changed from that of a middle-aged professor, to the contorted frame of a lizardlike creature with blades at its arms.

"How'd you know, kid?" asked Dante, tilting his head back up at the girl.

My nerves calmed down some, seeing the creature before us. _It wasn't a human _, I kept thinking, but now I was unable to take my eyes off the other human in the room.

"Are you demon hunters?" the girl asked instead. "This guy used to be my professor, but suddenly he seemed like a totally different person, and… They're kind of keeping this on the downlow, but there have been people disappearing from campus. Not often enough that they thought it was anything weird, though. The staff is happy to cover up, as long as it doesn't make the university look bad. My sword showed me the truth."

I was intimidated by her already, by what she'd done, but her choice of words unsettled me once again. Even though I knew everything had turned out alright.

"No clue what happened to the real guy, but I wouldn't go looking for him."

"Yeah, well, that thing used to be our gig," huffed Dante, cutting his eyes back down at the floor with a nod.

"I honestly didn't think they'd called anyone," she said, adjusting the bag over her shoulder. As she shifted, I realized she had a pretty bad gash above her eye, a thin red smear from beside her right eye, cutting across her eyebrow. "Just tell them you took care of it. I'm not looking for credit."

Dante thought about that for a moment, his face scrunched up like he was about to declare it to be too much trouble.

I didn't know what to make of the situation, but Celaeno was quieter than normal, and more than a little on edge.

_"Ask to see her sword," _she whispered, as if she were afraid of being overheard.

I did, aware of the hesitation in my voice that made my request sound disingenuine. Like I was being puppeted.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours," she scoffed, shifting to look at me again.

I could tell she was teasing, but my judgement got the better of me, and I wasn't able to laugh. I didn't move, instead looking more suspicious, no doubt.

She laughed, however, adjusting the bag even more over her shoulder. "Relax. Since the demon is taken care of, I've got time."

Dante rolled his eyes, but I could tell he was thinking about something too. A devil arm was dangerous in anyone's hands.

The hilt was removed first, then the blade. It wasn't a blade I recognized, but Celaeno certainly seemed to. A chill of genuine resentment went through me, stemming from her as she laid eyes on the blade, bent and feathered like a single dark wing.

"Aello's Bane," she said. "That's what it's called."

The chill I felt from Celaeno gradually warmed and began to boil.

I didn't know how to interpret those feelings, so I stayed silent, even as Celaeno inadvertently bombarded me with complex waves of emotions I didn't feel like unpacking at the moment.

"Look, I'm not going to let your work go without payment. I'll make a check out to you if I have to. At least give me a name," said Dante, exasperated. Apparently, he had moved on, but I could never tell what he was thinking.

"Sloane. Mathis," she said, almost against her will. Almost. "But really, I'm not trying to steal this job from you."

There was an unusual pause in the way she said "job."

"Nope, already writing it down," he said, tapping his forehead with one hand while the other reached to his pocket for a pen. "How's $200 sound? If you won't take the full amount, that's about half."

Sloane held the sword tenderly, in a way that I was all too familiar with, even as her hands continued to tremble. She was acting cool, but I didn't have to wonder how she really felt about what she'd done. "Umm, sure? If I really can't talk you out of it."

A feeling of dread came over me as I watched her put the sword away, this feeling actually from me.

Dante snickered a little as he signed the check, then presented it to her with a grin.

I watched as Sloane slowly, carefully put Aello's Bane back in the camera bag. There was nothing in the case except the sword. Then, she took the check from him, and put it in the pocket of her dark green sweater.

"Thanks, I'll put it to good use," she said, giving a nervous snort. "Um… see you around, I guess?"

She ducked her head back down, putting her baseball cap back on her head. I hadn't noticed it was missing, but apparently she was uncomfortable without it. She shuffled out of the room, ignoring both of us as she made her escape.

Dante's grin faded slightly, and he put one hand on the inside of the door frame so he could lean out and peer around the door at her as she walked off down the hall. "I guess we'd better let someone know it's done. How long have we been here? Twenty minutes at most? They're gonna think we released the thing ourselves to drum up business."

I shrugged a little, moving past him with a somewhat numb feeling in the back of my head.

He left me alone, and didn't speak up again until we were leaving the visitor's center, on our way back to the street.

"I'm going to have to look into that sword of hers," he said, frowning just a little as he stepped off the sidewalk onto the pavement of the parking lot. "Finding those things out in the wild is almost never a good thing. You're a lucky exception."

"Yeah. I'll call Vergil later," I offered. "I've… got some thinking to do, I think? I've never heard of any Aello's Bane before, but Celaeno is having some kind of reaction to it. If he knows anything, we might have to count on that being our only lead."

Celaeno gave a small hiss. _"If you know what's good for you, you'll stay away from that girl _and _her sword." _

It wasn't a threat, but a warning, but it annoyed me all the same. I decided against saying anything.

"Yeah. Good thing I got her name too," said Dante, summoning Cavaliere once again as I put the helmet back on. "She seemed alright, but I don't like when my gut feelings are right, and unfortunately, they usually are. I've learned not to trust anyone brandishing a devil arm like it's nothing. And usually, when humans are involved, things start to get weird."

That, I could understand. I mounted the bike behind him, clinging desperately to his middle as the engine revved. The bike's center of gravity angled more sharply than I would have liked, so I closed my eyes and squeezed him a little more tightly than _he _would have liked.

Dante dropped me off at my apartment, promising to work out my payment later, due to unexpected events, and I resigned myself to most likely spending the rest of the day either in bed or on my sofa with my journal. I felt a little drained.

I called Vergil.

It wasn't a conversation I was excited to have, since I knew Celaeno was against me looking into it, but I was going to do it anyway. If she was afraid, there must have been some danger, and I wasn't going to be surprised when something bad happened.

Vergil answered, after more than a couple of rings. "Medea?"

I hummed, ignoring Celaeno's frustration as I spoke. "Hey, I know we're not planning on getting together again until our next session, but I ran into something weird earlier and need to know if you know anything about it?"

There was a pause. I had been a little more vague than I meant to be, so I imagined that he was running through a list of his own, trying to figure out what series of events I could possibly be about to tangle him up in. "Go on."

"Have you ever heard of a devil arm called Aello's Bane?" I asked, plainly.

A long hum, while he thought. "Yes, actually. I've heard more mention of it than your dagger, so I know a little bit about it. What happened to make you ask?"

I sighed. "Dante called me in earlier, but our target got stolen by a girl who apparently used it to take out a demon posing as her professor. A human."

"That's… probably not a good sign," said Vergil. I could picture his deep frown setting across his face, the way his brows creased and his nose crinkled in a snarl while he thought. "It's something I came across a few times in my research, but… The only thing I really know about it is that it amplifies its wielder's abilities, at the cost of their own strength. If it's nothing to worry about, then it's a danger to the girl, at the very least."

I thought about how Sloane was shaking even as she left the building, and how drained I felt using Celaeno's power until Nico had tweaked the dagger for me, somehow. I was prone to fainting under physical stress, but Celaeno wasn't _really _dangerous. If I was careful, I'd never get seriously hurt just from exerting myself.

But if Aello's Bane was anything like that, and Vergil was right, it was probably much worse for her.

"Is that all?" I asked, frowning. I decided to leave out the fact that it was connected to Celaeno somehow, if he didn't put it together himself. She was already unhappy with me, but since he'd told me he didn't know anything about my dagger, I doubted he would make the connection, beyond the similar sounding names.

"It wasn't something that caught my interest," he admitted. "And it's been a _long _time since I read about it, but the name and that fact alone did stand out to me. I can try to find more information, but most texts aren't that in depth. There isn't exactly a catalog of devil arms lying around. That may be all there is to know about it."

I nodded a bit to myself, sighing as I plopped down on my couch.

"That's fine. I just kind of had a bad feeling about it. Dante might give you a call too, just a heads up. He was there with me when we saw her, and I've got to say, I don't think I like it when he's open about his suspicions of something," I said.

"If you're prone to worrying, I can see why that might not help your nerves," he agreed quietly. "Anything else?"

"No, I just called because of the sword." I touched the cover of my journal on the coffee table, flipping a few pages of scribbled illustrations absently while I thought. "But… as long as I've got you on the phone, have you been thinking about when we should get dinner?"

He released a short exhale from his nose, almost making me wonder if I had asked the wrong question. I wasn't nervous before, but the short day's events had me rattled more than I cared to admit. Something coiled up in the pit of my stomach.

"A little. We aren't meeting for practice until next week, so… This weekend?" he offered.

I unclenched just a little when his response didn't seem like a negative.

"That sounds good," I hummed. "I'll eat just about anything, so I'll let you decide."

"I was just about to say that you should decide - I don't know of anywhere that would be… tonally appropriate," he admitted. "Not that I have very much experience with any eatery in town, apart from the ones my brother frequents."

"Maybe we should flip a coin when we leave," I suggested, laughing quietly. My anxious feeling had subsided, for a moment. "Anywhere is fine. It doesn't have to be fancy."

"I might be a little pickier than you," he warned.

"That's fine, I like trying new things. We'll figure it out."

We narrowed down the details, Friday, 8pm. Dinner, then drinks, and maybe a movie at home? I reminded him that I was cutting back on drinking, if not quitting entirely, and he suggested that whatever I had didn't have to be alcoholic. I thought it might be better if it wasn't, but my head was urging me on anyway. I was happy to accommodate him, I thought, if way too eager.

Maybe the weird feeling in my stomach wasn't dread or fear; maybe it wasn't a negative feeling at all. Maybe I just wasn't used to… whatever I was feeling about him. I was afraid to jump in too quickly or make any assumptions about what I was feeling. That's why our whole arrangement was so tentative in the first place. It could just be a trial period.

All the while, Celaeno was stewing on her own. I knew she had a lot on her mind, between her distaste for Vergil and… whatever was worrying her this time, so I tried not to think too much of it. Still, it wouldn't stop nagging in the back of my head, even while I talked out the details with Vergil.

I tried to think about happier things instead. A warm bed, landing a job I was actually good at… the way Vergil's fingers brushed my neck so softly that one time I'd asked him to help me take off my choker, and he had broken the clasp instead…

"I should go," I said quietly, after a lull in the conversation. "But… I'll see you then, okay?"

"I'll see you then."

I really just hoped Dante's gut feeling was wrong.

* * *

**A/N - Don't forget to R&R! **_Do people still say that? They should. I miss the audacity of this website._


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